6,727,335 Shares in StoneCo Ltd. $STNE Acquired by Nuveen LLC

Key Points

• Nuveen LLC has acquired a new stake in StoneCo Ltd., purchasing 6,727,335 shares valued at approximately $70.5 million, making up about 2.35% of the company.
• Several hedge funds have significantly increased their positions in StoneCo, with institutional investors now holding 73.19% of the stock.
• Analysts have varied price targets for StoneCo, with JPMorgan Chase raising its target to $18.50, reflecting a positive outlook for the company's future performance.

Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 6,727,335 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $70,502,000. Nuveen LLC owned about 2.35% of StoneCo at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in StoneCo by 22.2% in the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 13,956,554 shares of the company's stock valued at $111,234,000 after buying an additional 2,534,079 shares during the last quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. increased its position in shares of StoneCo by 46.8% during the fourth quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 13,951,183 shares of the company's stock valued at $111,191,000 after acquiring an additional 4,446,709 shares during the last quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. increased its position in shares of StoneCo by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 11,623,836 shares of the company's stock valued at $92,642,000 after acquiring an additional 2,173,389 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its position in StoneCo by 40.3% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,993,611 shares of the company's stock worth $55,739,000 after purchasing an additional 2,008,710 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JGP Global Gestao de Recursos Ltda. grew its stake in StoneCo by 484.8% in the 1st quarter. JGP Global Gestao de Recursos Ltda. now owns 4,472,738 shares of the company's stock valued at $46,874,000 after purchasing an additional 3,707,941 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on STNE. Wall Street Zen lowered StoneCo from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of StoneCo to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $15.50 to $18.50 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Santander raised shares of StoneCo from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of StoneCo from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $9.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $15.07.

StoneCo Stock Performance

Shares of StoneCo stock traded down $0.17 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $15.41. The company had a trading volume of 1,226,507 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,049,622. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.57. StoneCo Ltd. has a one year low of $7.72 and a one year high of $16.68. The firm has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a PE ratio of -22.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 1.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.48.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.03. StoneCo had a positive return on equity of 18.71% and a negative net margin of 8.37%. The company had revenue of $643.82 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.78 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.