Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Invests $1.41 Million in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 177,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,413,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in STNE. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 36.2% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,422,475 shares of the company’s stock valued at $128,617,000 after purchasing an additional 3,035,530 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in StoneCo by 51.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,972,037 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,765,000 after acquiring an additional 2,692,558 shares during the last quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda grew its holdings in StoneCo by 3,248.6% during the 4th quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 1,813,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,454,000 after acquiring an additional 1,759,429 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 36.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,190,344 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,302,000 after acquiring an additional 1,374,788 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 327.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,580,679 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,798,000 after purchasing an additional 1,210,817 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

StoneCo Trading Up 2.0 %

STNE opened at $11.32 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.50 billion, a PE ratio of 8.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. StoneCo Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $7.72 and a fifty-two week high of $17.93. The company’s 50-day moving average is $9.42 and its 200 day moving average is $9.92.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.07. StoneCo had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 16.02%. The company had revenue of $582.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.59 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $9.00 target price (down from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $14.50.

StoneCo Company Profile

StoneCo Ltd. provides financial technology and software solutions to merchants and integrated partners to conduct electronic commerce across in-store, online, and mobile channels in Brazil. It distributes its solutions, principally through proprietary Stone Hubs, which offer hyper-local sales and services; and sells solutions to brick-and-mortar and digital merchants through sales team.