Swiss National Bank Sells 114,000 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Swiss National Bank trimmed its stake in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 20.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 456,057 shares of the company’s stock after selling 114,000 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.15% of StoneCo worth $3,635,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of StoneCo by 36.2% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,422,475 shares of the company’s stock valued at $128,617,000 after purchasing an additional 3,035,530 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in StoneCo by 51.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,972,037 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,765,000 after buying an additional 2,692,558 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in StoneCo by 36.0% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda boosted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 1,759,429 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on STNE shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective 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. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $9.00 price objective (down previously from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a report on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $14.50.

StoneCo Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STNE opened at $11.45 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.95, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.33. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $9.49 and a 200-day moving average of $9.92. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12 month low of $7.72 and a 12 month high of $17.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.07. StoneCo had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 16.02%. The firm had revenue of $582.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.59 billion. As a group, equities research analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 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.