Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Takes Position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 73,712 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $587,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 254.7% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 4,256 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 3,056 shares during the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 166.7% during the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 4,000 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the 4th quarter valued at about $56,000. KBC Group NV acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at about $73,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of StoneCo during the fourth quarter worth about $101,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

STNE has been the topic of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $9.00 price objective (down from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $14.50.

StoneCo Stock Performance

NASDAQ:STNE opened at $11.10 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.67, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.33. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.94. 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 Ltd. has a 1 year low of $7.72 and a 1 year high of $17.93.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $582.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.59 billion. StoneCo had a net margin of 16.02% and a return on equity of 13.92%. On average, analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share 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.