SG Americas Securities LLC Buys 198,314 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 206.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 294,213 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 198,314 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $4,351,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the third quarter worth $570,000. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new position in StoneCo in the third quarter valued at about $507,000. Advisory Services Network LLC acquired a new stake in StoneCo in the third quarter worth about $37,000. Williamson Legacy Group LLC acquired a new stake in StoneCo in the third quarter worth about $1,363,000. Finally, Dark Forest Capital Management LP bought a new stake in StoneCo during the 3rd quarter worth about $2,259,000. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of StoneCo from $19.50 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Zacks Research raised shares of StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Santander lowered shares of StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.07.

StoneCo Stock Up 1.7%

StoneCo stock opened at $14.36 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.39, a PEG ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 1.78. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $15.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.43. StoneCo Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $9.83 and a fifty-two week high of $19.95.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $675.42 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $704.26 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 15.38% and a return on equity of 21.55%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate 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.