Norges Bank Acquires New Holdings in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,840,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,642,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings 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 valued at $17,798,000 after acquiring an additional 1,210,817 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in StoneCo by 51.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,972,037 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,765,000 after purchasing an additional 2,692,558 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC bought a new position in shares of StoneCo in the third quarter valued at approximately $9,091,000. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 170.8% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 440,682 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,962,000 after buying an additional 277,963 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commons Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the 4th quarter worth $383,000. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

STNE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays lifted their price objective on StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $9.00 price target (down from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a report on Thursday, January 16th. One 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, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $14.50.

StoneCo Stock Down 7.1 %

STNE opened at $10.58 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.27, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $9.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.87. StoneCo Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $7.72 and a fifty-two week high of $17.93.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted 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. The business had revenue of $582.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.59 billion. StoneCo had a net margin of 16.02% and a return on equity of 13.92%. On average, analysts anticipate that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

StoneCo Company 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.