ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC Invests $6.78 Million in StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC purchased a new stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 480,350 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,783,000. StoneCo comprises about 5.2% of ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC owned 0.19% of StoneCo at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in StoneCo by 11,473.3% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,736 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 1,721 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in StoneCo during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its position in StoneCo by 74.1% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 2,199 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 936 shares during the last quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc bought a new position in StoneCo during the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Torren Management LLC bought a new position in StoneCo during the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. 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. UBS Group cut their target price on StoneCo from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 17th. BTIG Research dropped their price objective on StoneCo from $22.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 15th. Bank of America cut StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on StoneCo in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating and a $12.60 target price on the stock. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered StoneCo from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, StoneCo currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $14.59.

StoneCo Price Performance

STNE opened at $10.76 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.30, a PEG ratio of 0.32 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12-month low of $9.45 and a 12-month high of $19.95. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $10.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $13.28.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.42. The firm had revenue of $141.16 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $675.11 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 23.82% and a return on equity of 21.05%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that StoneCo Ltd. will post 2.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Silvio Jose Morais sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total value of $101,610.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 21,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $237,090. This trade represents a 30.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

StoneCo Profile

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.