Wall Street Zen Downgrades StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) to Hold

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) was downgraded by Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Friday.

Several other research firms have also commented on STNE. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup upgraded shares of StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $9.00 to $15.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $15.63.

StoneCo Price Performance

STNE stock opened at $13.53 on Friday. StoneCo has a 52 week low of $7.72 and a 52 week high of $15.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $12.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $10.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.01.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.02. StoneCo had a net margin of 16.02% and a return on equity of 13.92%. The business had revenue of $625.86 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.68 billion. Analysts anticipate that StoneCo will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StoneCo

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 22.2% during the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 13,956,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,234,000 after buying an additional 2,534,079 shares in the last quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 46.8% during the 4th quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 13,951,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,191,000 after buying an additional 4,446,709 shares in the last quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 11,982,873 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,581,000 after buying an additional 359,037 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 40.3% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,993,611 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,739,000 after buying an additional 2,008,710 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in StoneCo during the 1st quarter valued at about $70,502,000. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

About StoneCo

StoneCo Ltd. provides financial technology and software solutions to merchants and integrated partners to conduct electronic commerce across in-store, online, and mobile channels in Brazil. It distributes its solutions, principally through proprietary Stone Hubs, which offer hyper-local sales and services; and sells solutions to brick-and-mortar and digital merchants through sales team.