304,051 Shares in StoneCo Ltd. $STNE Acquired by Perpetual Ltd

Key Points

• Perpetual Ltd has acquired 304,051 shares of StoneCo Ltd., valued at approximately $4.87 million, marking its initial investment in the company.
• Research firms have shown increased optimism for StoneCo, with JPMorgan Chase & Co. raising its price target from $15.50 to $18.50 and Bank of America increasing it to $25.00.
• StoneCo reported an EPS of $0.39 for the last quarter, slightly exceeding analysts' expectations, despite having lower revenue of $643.82 million against an expectation of $3.78 billion.

Perpetual Ltd bought a new stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 304,051 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,877,000. Perpetual Ltd owned about 0.11% of StoneCo as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STNE. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in StoneCo by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 52,027 shares of the company's stock valued at $414,000 after acquiring an additional 14,093 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $103,000. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 49.0% in the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 80,620 shares of the company's stock valued at $643,000 after purchasing an additional 26,527 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 54,763 shares of the company's stock valued at $436,000 after purchasing an additional 4,417 shares during the period. Finally, Voloridge Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 13,279.6% in the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 1,813,606 shares of the company's stock valued at $14,454,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800,051 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

StoneCo Stock Up 0.8%

NASDAQ:STNE traded up $0.15 on Tuesday, reaching $19.33. 989,708 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,892,191. The company has a market capitalization of $5.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -27.61, a PEG ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 1.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12 month low of $7.72 and a 12 month high of $19.62. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $15.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.93.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $643.82 million for 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 18.71%. Equities analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

STNE has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of StoneCo from $15.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of StoneCo from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of StoneCo from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of StoneCo to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, StoneCo has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $16.56.

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.