Zacks Investment Management Purchases 30,825 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Zacks Investment Management boosted its position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 32.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 127,068 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 30,825 shares during the quarter. Zacks Investment Management’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $1,013,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in STNE. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the 4th quarter valued at $22,642,000. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,759,429 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in StoneCo by 36.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,190,344 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,302,000 after buying an additional 1,374,788 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in StoneCo by 327.4% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,580,679 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,798,000 after acquiring an additional 1,210,817 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trexquant Investment LP acquired a new position in StoneCo during the fourth quarter worth about $6,178,000. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased 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. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $9.00 price objective (down previously from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, StoneCo presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $14.50.

StoneCo Price Performance

STNE stock opened at $12.26 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a market cap of $3.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.58, a PEG ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.05. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $10.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.90. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12-month low of $7.72 and a 12-month high of $17.09.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) 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 the consensus estimate of $3.59 billion. On average, analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

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.