StoneCo Ltd. $STNE Shares Sold by Vanguard Group Inc.

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its stake in StoneCo Ltd. by 36.5%, selling over 1.2 million shares, bringing its total ownership to approximately 2.1 million shares valued at $22.27 million.
• Several institutional investors increased their holdings in StoneCo, with GAMMA Investing LLC raising its position by an impressive 1,486.3% during the same period.
• StoneCo reported earnings of $0.39 EPS, exceeding estimates, but had a negative net margin of 8.37% despite a revenue of $643.82 million.

Vanguard Group Inc. decreased its stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) by 36.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,124,920 shares of the company's stock after selling 1,219,027 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.74% of StoneCo worth $22,269,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of STNE. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in StoneCo during the fourth quarter worth approximately $132,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 174,709 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,392,000 after purchasing an additional 9,578 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in StoneCo by 177.2% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 52,602 shares of the company's stock valued at $419,000 after purchasing an additional 33,624 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in StoneCo by 18.6% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 118,826 shares of the company's stock valued at $948,000 after purchasing an additional 18,659 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 429.5% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Securities LLC now owns 24,054 shares of the company's stock valued at $192,000 after buying an additional 31,354 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on STNE shares. Santander raised StoneCo from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Zacks Research upgraded StoneCo to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on StoneCo from $15.50 to $18.50 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. UBS Group increased their price target on StoneCo from $15.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered StoneCo from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $15.36.

StoneCo Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of StoneCo stock traded down $0.13 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $16.47. 3,496,536 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,115,334. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $13.01. 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 company has a market cap of $4.71 billion, a PE ratio of -23.53, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 1.91. StoneCo Ltd. has a twelve month low of $7.72 and a twelve month high of $16.82.

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