Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. Reduces Holdings in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 80.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,764 shares of the company’s stock after selling 49,136 shares during the quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc.’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $123,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in StoneCo by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 21,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $168,000 after buying an additional 1,205 shares in the last quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ grew its holdings in StoneCo by 31.6% in the 4th quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 7,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 1,800 shares in the last quarter. Aviva PLC grew its holdings in StoneCo by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 176,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,410,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. grew its holdings in StoneCo by 10.9% in the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 20,781 shares of the company’s stock valued at $166,000 after buying an additional 2,044 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC grew its holdings in StoneCo by 21.4% in the 4th quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 15,051 shares of the company’s stock valued at $120,000 after buying an additional 2,656 shares in the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

StoneCo Stock Performance

NASDAQ STNE opened at $15.17 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.59. StoneCo Ltd. has a twelve month low of $7.72 and a twelve month high of $16.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market cap of $4.34 billion, a PE ratio of -19.45, a P/E/G ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 1.94.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted 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. StoneCo had a positive return on equity of 16.65% and a negative net margin of 8.90%. The firm had revenue of $625.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.68 billion. Equities analysts anticipate that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on STNE. Santander upgraded StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays upped their target price on StoneCo from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Wall Street Zen cut StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $14.57.

StoneCo 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.