StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Shares Gap Up After Earnings Beat

Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) gapped up prior to trading on Friday following a stronger than expected earnings report. The stock had previously closed at $13.50, but opened at $14.75. StoneCo shares last traded at $14.30, with a volume of 2,723,031 shares changing hands.

The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $643.82 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.78 billion. StoneCo had a negative net margin of 8.37% and a positive return on equity of 18.19%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Santander upgraded shares of StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Citigroup raised shares of StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $9.00 to $15.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of StoneCo from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of StoneCo from $15.50 to $18.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $15.07.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in StoneCo by 143.0% in the first quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,614 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 2,715 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in StoneCo by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,696,729 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,523,000 after acquiring an additional 116,050 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in StoneCo in the first quarter valued at approximately $597,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in StoneCo by 1,486.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,903 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 2,720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $132,000. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

StoneCo Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market cap of $4.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.38 and a beta of 1.88. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $12.33.

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.