Intellectus Partners LLC Sells 14,250 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Intellectus Partners LLC lessened its position in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 20.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 54,700 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,250 shares during the quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $986,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of STNE. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in StoneCo during the third quarter valued at $264,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its position in StoneCo by 28.1% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 25,024 shares of the company’s stock valued at $267,000 after acquiring an additional 5,489 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in StoneCo during the third quarter valued at $143,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its position in StoneCo by 72.6% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 2,969,463 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,684,000 after acquiring an additional 1,249,463 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its position in StoneCo by 72.3% during the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 72,428 shares of the company’s stock valued at $773,000 after acquiring an additional 30,391 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on STNE. Barclays upped their price objective on StoneCo from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. UBS Group cut StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Citigroup upped their price target on StoneCo from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Susquehanna reduced their price target on StoneCo from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $12.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, StoneCo presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.00.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:STNE traded up $0.78 during trading on Friday, hitting $16.35. 6,294,173 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,732,987. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. StoneCo Ltd. has a 52-week low of $9.34 and a 52-week high of $19.46. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.52. The company has a market cap of $5.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.19, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 2.34.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last released its earnings results on Monday, March 18th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. StoneCo had a return on equity of 11.23% and a net margin of 13.35%. The firm had revenue of $655.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $468.47 million. As a group, equities analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.27 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.