StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Stake Lessened by Private Advisor Group LLC

Private Advisor Group LLC cut its stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 18.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 33,184 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,482 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $374,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in StoneCo by 10.2% during the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 8,386,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,559,000 after purchasing an additional 779,445 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in StoneCo by 204.1% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 7,741,662 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,823,000 after buying an additional 5,195,787 shares in the last quarter. Constellation Investimentos e Participacoes Ltda lifted its position in StoneCo by 30.0% in the 3rd quarter. Constellation Investimentos e Participacoes Ltda now owns 3,047,576 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,316,000 after buying an additional 703,249 shares in the last quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. lifted its position in StoneCo by 16.0% in the 2nd quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 2,841,696 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,072,000 after buying an additional 392,958 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in StoneCo by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,636,619 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,794,000 after buying an additional 88,256 shares in the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STNE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of StoneCo from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and set a $7.00 price target (down previously from $16.50) on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of StoneCo to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of StoneCo from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, seven have given 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 a consensus price target of $17.70.

StoneCo Stock Performance

NASDAQ STNE opened at $11.03 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $3.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.97, a P/E/G ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 2.29. The company’s fifty day moving average is $11.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $13.01. StoneCo Ltd. has a 52-week low of $10.20 and a 52-week high of $19.46.

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

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.