Balyasny Asset Management L.P. Grows Holdings in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) by 105.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 71,111 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 36,456 shares during the quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P.'s holdings in StoneCo were worth $567,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in STNE. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 104.5% during the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 599,500 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,778,000 after buying an additional 306,400 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in StoneCo by 44.9% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,073,658 shares of the company's stock valued at $24,497,000 after acquiring an additional 952,039 shares during the period. Two Sigma Securities LLC grew its position in StoneCo by 429.5% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Securities LLC now owns 24,054 shares of the company's stock worth $192,000 after acquiring an additional 31,354 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in StoneCo by 18.6% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 118,826 shares of the company's stock worth $948,000 after purchasing an additional 18,659 shares during the period. Finally, Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. increased its stake in StoneCo by 23.0% in the 4th quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 11,623,836 shares of the company's stock worth $92,642,000 after purchasing an additional 2,173,389 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Citigroup raised shares of StoneCo from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $9.00 to $15.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of StoneCo from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Barclays increased 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, StoneCo presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $15.63.

StoneCo Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ STNE traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $13.42. 4,666,253 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,739,438. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12-month low of $7.72 and a 12-month high of $15.23. The firm has a market cap of $3.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.48, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.01. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $11.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $10.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.02. StoneCo had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 16.02%. The firm had revenue of $625.86 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.68 billion. As a group, 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.