Brokerages Set StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Price Target at $17.44

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $19.0714.

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. UBS Group cut their price objective on StoneCo from $19.50 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Zacks Research raised StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of StoneCo in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Santander downgraded shares of StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StoneCo

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 16,959 shares of the company’s stock valued at $251,000 after purchasing an additional 741 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in StoneCo by 22.4% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 4,699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 860 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in StoneCo by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 19,834 shares of the company’s stock valued at $375,000 after acquiring an additional 925 shares during the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. boosted its stake in StoneCo by 74.1% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 2,199 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 936 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its position in shares of StoneCo by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 220,874 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,177,000 after purchasing an additional 978 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

StoneCo Stock Performance

Shares of STNE stock opened at $13.35 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.23 and a beta of 1.78. StoneCo has a one year low of $9.83 and a one year high of $19.95. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $15.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.46.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.02. The company 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that StoneCo will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

StoneCo Company 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.