StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Cantor Fitzgerald

Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Thursday, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on STNE. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an underweight rating and issued a $7.00 target price (down from $16.50) on shares of StoneCo in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of StoneCo from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of StoneCo from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and set a $20.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, June 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $17.80.

StoneCo Stock Performance

STNE stock opened at $11.33 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $12.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $13.82. The company has a market capitalization of $3.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.21, a PEG ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 2.30. StoneCo has a 1-year low of $9.34 and a 1-year high of $19.46.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $615.13 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $590.74 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 15.27% and a return on equity of 13.21%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that StoneCo will post 1.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StoneCo

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in StoneCo by 63.5% in the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 88,182 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,590,000 after buying an additional 34,239 shares during the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its position in StoneCo by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $902,000 after buying an additional 3,000 shares during the last quarter. CenterBook Partners LP purchased a new stake in StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $368,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,008,000. Finally, Azora Capital LP purchased a new stake in StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $18,458,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

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.