HighTower Advisors LLC Invests $312,000 in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

HighTower Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 39,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $312,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda increased its stake in shares of StoneCo by 3,248.6% in the fourth quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 1,813,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,454,000 after buying an additional 1,759,429 shares during the period. Gallagher Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at about $144,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of StoneCo by 55.5% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 96,382 shares of the company’s stock worth $768,000 after buying an additional 34,404 shares during the period. Ruffer LLP acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the 4th quarter valued at about $560,000. Finally, Amundi raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 313,317 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,497,000 after purchasing an additional 9,263 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STNE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays boosted their price objective on StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $14.50.

StoneCo Stock Performance

StoneCo stock opened at $10.57 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.90. 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 Ltd. has a 1-year low of $7.72 and a 1-year high of $17.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a PE ratio of 8.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.33.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $3.59 billion. As a group, analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.