StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the eleven research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $15.63.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on STNE shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Citigroup raised shares of StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $9.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of StoneCo from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StoneCo

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 1,486.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,903 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 2,720 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 327.4% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,154 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 2,416 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 254.7% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 4,256 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 3,056 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 627.0% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 4,551 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 3,925 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 143.0% in the first quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,614 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 2,715 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of STNE opened at $14.35 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $4.10 billion, a PE ratio of 11.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 1.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. StoneCo has a fifty-two week low of $7.72 and a fifty-two week high of $15.08. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $13.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $10.60.

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

StoneCo Company Profile

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.