Nuveen Asset Management LLC Boosts Stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 40.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,993,611 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,008,710 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $55,739,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. raised its position in StoneCo by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 11,623,836 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,642,000 after purchasing an additional 2,173,389 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in StoneCo by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,419,797 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,120,000 after purchasing an additional 229,453 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in StoneCo by 44.9% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,073,658 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,497,000 after purchasing an additional 952,039 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in StoneCo during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $22,642,000. Finally, Azora Capital LP raised its position in StoneCo by 305.0% during the fourth quarter. Azora Capital LP now owns 2,228,318 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,760,000 after purchasing an additional 1,678,131 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on STNE shares. Barclays upped their price objective on StoneCo from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Citigroup upgraded StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $9.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StoneCo presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $15.63.

StoneCo Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ STNE opened at $13.36 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $11.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $10.22. StoneCo Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $7.72 and a fifty-two week high of $15.23. The company has a market cap of $3.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.44, a PEG ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.01.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.02. StoneCo had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 16.02%. The firm had revenue of $625.86 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.68 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

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.