SG Americas Securities LLC Acquires New Position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 56,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $597,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 2,715 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in StoneCo by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,696,729 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,523,000 after acquiring an additional 116,050 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC bought a new position in StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $312,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $101,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $132,000. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on STNE. Morgan Stanley raised their target price 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. Santander upgraded shares of StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. 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 report on Monday, May 12th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, StoneCo presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $15.63.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:STNE opened at $14.52 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a PE ratio of -18.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 1.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $13.55 and its 200-day moving average is $10.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39. StoneCo Ltd. has a 52 week low of $7.72 and a 52 week high of $15.27.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $625.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.68 billion. StoneCo had a negative net margin of 8.90% and a positive return on equity of 16.65%. Sell-side analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current 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.