StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $13.73, but opened at $14.63. StoneCo shares last traded at $14.6750, with a volume of 1,916,898 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group lowered their price objective on StoneCo from $20.00 to $19.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Santander downgraded shares of StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Zacks Research cut shares of StoneCo from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.50.

StoneCo Trading Up 6.1%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.43. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $15.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.63. The stock has a market cap of $4.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.53, a P/E/G ratio of 0.30 and a beta of 1.78.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.02. StoneCo had a net margin of 15.38% and a return on equity of 21.33%. The company had revenue of $675.42 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $704.26 million. On average, research analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of StoneCo

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 11,473.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,736 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 1,721 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Torren Management LLC acquired a new position in StoneCo in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Advisory Services Network LLC acquired a new position in StoneCo in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

About StoneCo

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.