Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. Sells 4,233 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. trimmed its position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 14.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,766 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,233 shares during the quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $397,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of STNE. Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of StoneCo in the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 334.4% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 327.4% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,154 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 2,416 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in StoneCo by 43.6% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,170 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 1,267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Twin Tree Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the first quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on STNE shares. Zacks Research upgraded StoneCo to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen lowered StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on StoneCo from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StoneCo has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.21.

StoneCo Stock Up 5.7%

STNE stock opened at $16.85 on Friday. StoneCo Ltd. has a 1-year low of $7.72 and a 1-year high of $19.95. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.75 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $15.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market cap of $4.82 billion, a P/E ratio of -31.19, a P/E/G ratio of 0.32 and a beta of 2.01.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.43. StoneCo had a negative net margin of 7.28% and a positive return on equity of 20.18%. The business had revenue of $669.49 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $669.81 million. Analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

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.