WINTON GROUP Ltd Purchases 96,100 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

WINTON GROUP Ltd grew its position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 164.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 154,700 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 96,100 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $2,925,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Ninety One UK Ltd raised its position in StoneCo by 218.4% in 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 during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in StoneCo during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $44,366,000. Azora Capital LP grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 88.2% during the 2nd 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. Tekne Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of StoneCo during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,288,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the second quarter valued at approximately $34,768,000. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on STNE. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of StoneCo from $20.00 to $19.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Santander downgraded shares of StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.50.

StoneCo Price Performance

NASDAQ:STNE opened at $14.09 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.03 billion, a PE ratio of 9.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.23 and a beta of 1.78. StoneCo Ltd. has a 1-year low of $8.95 and a 1-year high of $19.95. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $15.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $16.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $675.42 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $704.26 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 15.38% and a return on equity of 21.55%. On average, research analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal 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.