Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) by 32.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 68,739 shares of the company's stock after selling 32,300 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in StoneCo were worth $720,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of STNE. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of StoneCo by 254.7% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 4,256 shares of the company's stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 3,056 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $101,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $132,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its position in shares of StoneCo by 55.5% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 96,382 shares of the company's stock valued at $768,000 after acquiring an additional 34,404 shares during the period. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $312,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on STNE. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective 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. Santander upgraded shares of StoneCo from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of StoneCo from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of StoneCo from $15.50 to $18.50 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $15.07.

StoneCo Trading Down 2.6%

NASDAQ STNE traded down $0.39 during trading on Friday, hitting $14.53. The company had a trading volume of 771,760 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,795,388. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. StoneCo Ltd. has a one year low of $7.72 and a one year high of $16.68. The company has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -18.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 1.94. The company's fifty day moving average is $14.51 and its 200-day moving average is $11.73.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $625.86 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.68 billion. StoneCo had a negative net margin of 8.90% and a positive return on equity of 16.65%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share 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.