Citigroup Inc. Buys 97,721 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Citigroup Inc. lifted its stake in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 20.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 569,118 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 97,721 shares during the quarter. Citigroup Inc. owned 0.20% of StoneCo worth $10,762,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in STNE. Azora Capital LP grew its holdings in StoneCo by 88.2% during the 2nd quarter. Azora Capital LP now owns 4,863,331 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,008,000 after buying an additional 2,279,821 shares in the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its position in shares of StoneCo by 218.4% in the third quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 4,234,251 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,070,000 after acquiring an additional 2,904,432 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in StoneCo by 23.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,330,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,974,000 after acquiring an additional 635,677 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in StoneCo during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $44,366,000. Finally, Tekne Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in StoneCo in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,288,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on STNE. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Santander cut StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Zacks Research lowered StoneCo from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on StoneCo from $20.00 to $19.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.50.

StoneCo Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ STNE opened at $16.80 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.62. StoneCo Ltd. has a twelve month low of $8.64 and a twelve month high of $19.95. The company has a market capitalization of $4.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -31.11, a PEG ratio of 0.30 and a beta of 1.81.

About StoneCo

StoneCo Ltd., commonly known as Stone, is a Brazilian financial technology company that provides integrated digital payment solutions and related financial services to merchants. Through its cloud-based platform, Stone enables businesses of all sizes to accept a variety of payment methods, including point-of-sale (POS) terminals, mobile card readers and e-commerce gateways. In addition to payment acceptance, the company offers value-added services such as working capital loans, digital banking products and automated billing tools designed to help merchants manage cash flow and streamline operations.

Since its founding in 2012 by André Street and Eduardo Pontes, Stone has focused on serving over half a million merchants across Brazil’s retail, restaurant and services sectors.