Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. Purchases Shares of 61,687 StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 61,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $493,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in StoneCo during the 4th quarter worth approximately $22,642,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in StoneCo by 51.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,972,037 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,765,000 after buying an additional 2,692,558 shares during the last quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 3,248.6% in the fourth quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 1,813,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,454,000 after buying an additional 1,759,429 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in StoneCo by 36.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,190,344 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,302,000 after acquiring an additional 1,374,788 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in StoneCo by 327.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,580,679 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,798,000 after acquiring an additional 1,210,817 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

StoneCo Stock Performance

Shares of STNE stock opened at $10.98 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.86. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12 month low of $7.72 and a 12 month high of $17.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.39 billion, a PE ratio of 8.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.05.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on STNE. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and set a $9.00 price target (down from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a report on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective 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. Barclays increased their target price on shares of StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $14.50.

StoneCo 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.