StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Upgraded at Citigroup

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) was upgraded by Citigroup from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a $15.00 price objective on the stock, up from their prior price objective of $9.00. Citigroup’s price target indicates a potential upside of 24.38% from the stock’s previous close.

STNE has been the topic of a number of other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. One 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, StoneCo presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $15.25.

StoneCo Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:STNE opened at $12.06 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.05. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $10.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.89. 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 has a 1 year low of $7.72 and a 1 year high of $17.09.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 22.2% in the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 13,956,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,234,000 after purchasing an additional 2,534,079 shares during the last quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. lifted its position in StoneCo by 46.8% in the fourth quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 13,951,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,191,000 after buying an additional 4,446,709 shares during the last quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. boosted its stake in StoneCo by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 11,623,836 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,642,000 after buying an additional 2,173,389 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in StoneCo by 40.3% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,993,611 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,739,000 after buying an additional 2,008,710 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of StoneCo by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,419,797 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,120,000 after acquiring an additional 229,453 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About StoneCo

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.