StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation, eight have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $17.4375.

A number of analysts have commented on STNE shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on StoneCo from $15.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on StoneCo from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Bank of America lifted their target price on StoneCo from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised StoneCo from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday.

StoneCo Stock Down 2.1%

STNE stock opened at $18.27 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $5.23 billion, a PE ratio of -26.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 1.99. The business has a 50 day moving average of $17.39 and a 200 day moving average of $15.02. StoneCo has a twelve month low of $7.72 and a twelve month high of $19.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $643.82 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.78 billion. StoneCo had a positive return on equity of 18.71% and a negative net margin of 8.37%. On average, research analysts forecast that StoneCo will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StoneCo

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of STNE. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 1,486.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,903 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 2,720 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo in the 1st quarter worth $597,000. Constellation Investimentos e Participacoes Ltda purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo in the 1st quarter worth $990,000. Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo in the 1st quarter worth $265,000. Finally, Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 21,762 shares of the company’s stock worth $228,000 after buying an additional 981 shares during the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.