Inspire Investing LLC Invests $1.05 Million in StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Inspire Investing LLC acquired a new stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 55,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,051,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. boosted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 11,982,873 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,581,000 after buying an additional 359,037 shares during the last quarter. Azora Capital LP raised its holdings in StoneCo by 88.2% during the second quarter. Azora Capital LP now owns 4,863,331 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,008,000 after acquiring an additional 2,279,821 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in StoneCo during the second quarter valued at approximately $44,366,000. Tekne Capital Management LLC bought a new position in StoneCo in the second quarter valued at approximately $35,288,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in StoneCo in the second quarter valued at approximately $34,768,000. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on STNE. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of StoneCo from $15.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. Bank of America lifted their price target 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 lowered StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, StoneCo has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.21.

StoneCo Stock Down 0.8%

StoneCo stock opened at $14.61 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $16.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.16. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market cap of $4.18 billion, a P/E ratio of -27.05, a P/E/G ratio of 0.30 and a beta of 1.85. StoneCo Ltd. has a twelve month low of $7.72 and a twelve month high of $19.95.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.43. The company had revenue of $669.49 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $669.81 million. StoneCo had a positive return on equity of 20.18% and a negative net margin of 7.28%. As a group, analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

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.