IPG Investment Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 108,000 StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

IPG Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 108,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $861,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of STNE. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its position in StoneCo by 22.7% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 235,237 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,875,000 after buying an additional 43,521 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $22,642,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in StoneCo by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,696,729 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,523,000 after purchasing an additional 116,050 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its holdings in StoneCo by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 86,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $691,000 after purchasing an additional 3,296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. grew its position in StoneCo by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 23,220 shares of the company’s stock worth $185,000 after purchasing an additional 3,500 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

StoneCo Trading Down 4.0 %

STNE opened at $10.99 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $9.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.93. The company has a market capitalization of $3.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.59, a PEG ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.33. StoneCo Ltd. has a 52 week low of $7.72 and a 52 week high of $17.93.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.07. StoneCo had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 16.02%. The firm had revenue of $582.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.59 billion. Analysts forecast that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on STNE. Barclays raised their target price on StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $14.50.

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.