StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Stock Position Lowered by Federated Hermes Inc.

Key Points

• Federated Hermes Inc. reduced its stake in StoneCo Ltd. by 23.8% during the first quarter, now holding approximately 1.18 million shares valued at $12.4 million.
• Research analysts have given StoneCo a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy", with target prices ranging from $13.00 to $18.50 across several firms.
• StoneCo reported earnings of $0.34 per share for the last quarter, exceeding expectations, but its revenue of $625.86 million fell short of estimates of $3.68 billion.

Federated Hermes Inc. lessened its stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) by 23.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,183,051 shares of the company's stock after selling 369,585 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned about 0.41% of StoneCo worth $12,398,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 46.8% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at $22,642,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 22.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 2,534,079 shares in the last quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 2,173,389 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 40.3% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,993,611 shares of the company's stock worth $55,739,000 after buying an additional 2,008,710 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on STNE shares. Santander raised shares of StoneCo from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of StoneCo from $15.50 to $18.50 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of StoneCo from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Citigroup raised shares of StoneCo from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $9.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Barclays boosted 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, StoneCo has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $15.07.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:STNE traded up $0.20 during trading on Monday, reaching $12.77. The company had a trading volume of 3,258,321 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,681,851. The firm's fifty day moving average is $14.48 and its 200 day moving average is $12.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.65 billion, a PE ratio of 9.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 1.88. StoneCo Ltd. has a twelve month low of $7.72 and a twelve month high of $16.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $625.86 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.68 billion. StoneCo had a negative net margin of 8.90% and a positive return on equity of 16.65%. On average, equities analysts forecast that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

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.