Park Avenue Securities LLC Sells 79,662 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Park Avenue Securities LLC trimmed its position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 88.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,580 shares of the company’s stock after selling 79,662 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $156,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tekne Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the second quarter worth $35,288,000. Ninety One UK Ltd lifted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 218.4% during the 3rd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 4,234,251 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,070,000 after buying an additional 2,904,432 shares in the last quarter. Alta Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,631,000. Truxt Investmentos Ltda. bought a new position in StoneCo in the 3rd quarter worth $12,116,000. Finally, Jain Global LLC increased its stake in StoneCo by 381.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jain Global LLC now owns 769,596 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,553,000 after buying an additional 609,627 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

StoneCo Stock Up 3.9%

Shares of STNE stock opened at $14.12 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $15.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.28. StoneCo Ltd. has a 52 week low of $9.83 and a 52 week high of $19.95. The stock has a market cap of $4.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.23, a PEG ratio of 0.30 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $675.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $704.26 million. StoneCo had a return on equity of 21.55% and a net margin of 15.38%. Analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on STNE shares. Santander downgraded StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Zacks Research raised StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Weiss Ratings raised StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on StoneCo from $19.50 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, StoneCo presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.07.

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.