StoneCo Ltd. $STNE Shares Sold by 14B Captial Management LP

Key Points

• 14B Capital Management cut its StoneCo stake by 34.6% in the fourth quarter, selling 322,000 shares and leaving it with 609,000 shares worth about $9.0 million.
• Analysts remain mixed on STNE after several target-price cuts, with the stock currently carrying a Moderate Buy consensus and an average target price of $17.58.
• StoneCo recently reported EPS of $0.42 in line with estimates, but revenue came in far below expectations; the company also paid a special dividend of $2.53 per share.

14B Captial Management LP decreased its holdings in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) by 34.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 609,000 shares of the company's stock after selling 322,000 shares during the period. StoneCo makes up approximately 7.2% of 14B Captial Management LP's investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. 14B Captial Management LP owned about 0.21% of StoneCo worth $9,007,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Neuberger Berman Group LLC grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 16,959 shares of the company's stock valued at $251,000 after buying an additional 741 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 22.4% in the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 4,699 shares of the company's stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 860 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 19,834 shares of the company's stock valued at $375,000 after buying an additional 925 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 13,027 shares of the company's stock valued at $193,000 after buying an additional 1,207 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 10.0% in the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 13,995 shares of the company's stock valued at $224,000 after buying an additional 1,273 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STNE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BTIG Research lowered their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $15.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "hold (c)" rating on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Zacks Research raised shares of StoneCo from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Citigroup cut shares of StoneCo from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $18.00 to $11.00 in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of StoneCo from $20.00 to $16.50 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, StoneCo presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $17.58.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of STNE opened at $10.77 on Thursday. StoneCo Ltd. has a twelve month low of $9.45 and a twelve month high of $19.95. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $11.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.31, a PEG ratio of 0.20 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.42. StoneCo had a net margin of 23.82% and a return on equity of 21.05%. The firm had revenue of $141.16 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $675.11 million. Equities analysts forecast that StoneCo Ltd. will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StoneCo Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 24th were given a dividend of $2.53 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 24th.

Insider Transactions at StoneCo

In other StoneCo news, Director Silvio Jose Morais sold 9,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total transaction of $101,610.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 21,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $237,090. This trade represents a 30.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 11.25% of the company's stock.

StoneCo Company Profile

StoneCo Ltd., commonly known as Stone, is a Brazilian financial technology company that provides integrated digital payment solutions and related financial services to merchants. Through its cloud-based platform, Stone enables businesses of all sizes to accept a variety of payment methods, including point-of-sale (POS) terminals, mobile card readers and e-commerce gateways. In addition to payment acceptance, the company offers value-added services such as working capital loans, digital banking products and automated billing tools designed to help merchants manage cash flow and streamline operations.

Since its founding in 2012 by André Street and Eduardo Pontes, Stone has focused on serving over half a million merchants across Brazil's retail, restaurant and services sectors.

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