Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Increases Stock Position in StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Key Points

• Assenagon Asset Management S.A. has increased its stake in StoneCo Ltd. by 26.8%, now holding approximately 1.93 million shares valued at around $30.9 million.
• StoneCo's shares have shown significant price movement, with a 52-week low of $7.72 and a high of $19.62, and it currently has a market capitalization of $5.55 billion.
• Wall Street analysts have raised their target prices for StoneCo, with Bank of America increasing its target from $15.00 to $25.00 and several firms giving positive ratings, including a "strong-buy" from Zacks Research.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) by 26.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,927,369 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 407,177 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned 0.67% of StoneCo worth $30,915,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of STNE. Quantinno Capital Management LP purchased a new position in StoneCo in the 4th quarter valued at about $103,000. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in StoneCo by 49.0% in the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 80,620 shares of the company's stock valued at $643,000 after buying an additional 26,527 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in StoneCo by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 54,763 shares of the company's stock valued at $436,000 after buying an additional 4,417 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in StoneCo by 58.4% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,278,508 shares of the company's stock valued at $10,190,000 after buying an additional 471,117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vise Technologies Inc. acquired a new stake in StoneCo in the 4th quarter valued at about $106,000. 73.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on STNE. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $15.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of StoneCo from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target 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 downgraded shares of StoneCo from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded 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 given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, StoneCo has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $16.56.

StoneCo Stock Down 1.1%

STNE stock traded down $0.22 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $19.19. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,556,988 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,654,477. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. StoneCo Ltd. has a 52-week low of $7.72 and a 52-week high of $19.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.49 billion, a P/E ratio of -27.41, a PEG ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 1.91. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $13.93.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.03. StoneCo had a negative net margin of 8.37% and a positive return on equity of 18.71%. The company had revenue of $643.82 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.78 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS 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.