Silvio Jose Morais Sells 9,000 Shares of StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Stock

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Director Silvio Jose Morais sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total transaction of $101,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 21,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $237,090. This represents a 30.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link.

StoneCo Stock Performance

Shares of StoneCo stock opened at $10.99 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.40, a P/E/G ratio of 0.20 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.33. The company has a fifty day moving average of $11.97 and a 200 day moving average of $14.11. StoneCo Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $9.45 and a fifty-two week high of $19.95.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.42. StoneCo had a net margin of 23.82% and a return on equity of 21.05%. The company had revenue of $141.16 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $675.11 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that StoneCo Ltd. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StoneCo Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 4th. Investors of record on Friday, April 24th were given a dividend of $2.53 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 24th.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on STNE shares. Citigroup cut StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $11.00 in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on StoneCo from $20.00 to $16.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. UBS Group cut their target price on StoneCo from $19.50 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, BTIG Research cut their target price on StoneCo from $22.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.58.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StoneCo

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in StoneCo by 11,473.3% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,736 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 1,721 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Advisory Services Network LLC purchased a new position in StoneCo during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 936 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ensign Peak Advisors Inc purchased a new position in StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Hedge funds and other 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.