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 report published on Thursday, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on StoneCo from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of StoneCo from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and set a $20.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $17.80.

StoneCo Stock Performance

Shares of STNE stock opened at $11.33 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.36. The firm has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 2.30. StoneCo has a 52 week low of $9.34 and a 52 week high of $19.46. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $12.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $13.80.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in StoneCo by 233.7% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 117,093 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,318,000 after buying an additional 82,003 shares in the last quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. boosted its position in shares of StoneCo by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 2,562,394 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,723,000 after acquiring an additional 113,656 shares during the last quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo during the second quarter worth about $887,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in shares of StoneCo by 10.2% in the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 8,386,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,559,000 after purchasing an additional 779,445 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invst LLC increased its position in shares of StoneCo by 116.9% in the second quarter. Invst LLC now owns 22,892 shares of the company’s stock worth $269,000 after purchasing an additional 12,336 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

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.