StoneCo Ltd. $STNE is Nucleo Capital LTDA.'s Largest Position

Key Points

• Nucleo Capital LTDA. has reduced its holdings in StoneCo Ltd. by 33.9%, selling 833,718 shares, which now accounts for approximately 37.4% of its portfolio.
• Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of StoneCo, with several firms such as Nuveen LLC and JGP Global significantly increasing their positions recently.
• Analyst ratings for StoneCo vary, with Barclays and UBS Group raising their price targets, while others like Wall Street Zen have downgraded their recommendations.

Nucleo Capital LTDA. decreased its stake in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) by 33.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,623,344 shares of the company's stock after selling 833,718 shares during the period. StoneCo accounts for 37.4% of Nucleo Capital LTDA.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Nucleo Capital LTDA. owned about 0.57% of StoneCo worth $17,013,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in STNE. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in StoneCo during the 4th quarter worth about $132,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 18.6% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 118,826 shares of the company's stock worth $948,000 after purchasing an additional 18,659 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 44.9% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,073,658 shares of the company's stock worth $24,497,000 after purchasing an additional 952,039 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 105.2% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 71,111 shares of the company's stock worth $567,000 after purchasing an additional 36,456 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crestline Management LP lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 792.6% during the 4th quarter. Crestline Management LP now owns 114,239 shares of the company's stock worth $910,000 after purchasing an additional 101,440 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STNE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price target on 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 StoneCo from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen cut StoneCo from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on StoneCo from $15.50 to $18.50 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Zacks Research raised StoneCo to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, StoneCo has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $16.56.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of StoneCo stock traded up $0.03 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $17.88. 1,457,390 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,910,048. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market cap of $5.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -25.54, a PEG ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.91. The firm's fifty day moving average is $15.03 and its 200-day moving average is $13.32. StoneCo Ltd. has a 52 week low of $7.72 and a 52 week high of $18.15.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 positive return on equity of 18.71% and a negative net margin of 8.37%.The firm had revenue of $643.82 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.78 billion. Research analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal 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.