StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Short Interest Update

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 33,980,000 shares, an increase of 19.9% from the February 13th total of 28,340,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 6,130,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.5 days. Currently, 12.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StoneCo

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in StoneCo by 254.7% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 4,256 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 3,056 shares in the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its position in StoneCo by 627.0% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 4,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 3,925 shares in the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in StoneCo by 166.7% during the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 4,000 shares in the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in StoneCo during the 4th quarter worth about $56,000. Finally, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ increased its stake in shares of StoneCo by 31.6% during the 4th quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 7,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800 shares during the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $9.00 price target (down previously from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of StoneCo from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, StoneCo has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $14.38.

StoneCo Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of STNE stock traded down $0.24 on Tuesday, hitting $9.95. The stock had a trading volume of 2,250,931 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,427,020. StoneCo has a twelve month low of $7.72 and a twelve month high of $17.93. The firm has a market cap of $3.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.78, a PEG ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $9.13 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.99.

StoneCo Company 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.