Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Acquires Shares of 480,884 StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Key Points

• Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group acquired a new stake of 480,884 shares in StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) during Q4, worth about $7.11 million and representing roughly 0.17% of the company.
• StoneCo announced a $2.53 special dividend payable May 4 (record/ex-dividend April 24) and reported quarterly EPS of $0.50 (beat vs. $0.48) while revenue of $675.4M missed estimates.
• Analysts hold a consensus "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $19.29 (six Buy, four Hold), and institutional investors own about 73.19% of the stock, with several funds materially increasing positions (e.g., Ninety One UK to 4.23M shares).

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. acquired a new stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 480,884 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,112,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned about 0.17% of StoneCo at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in STNE. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its holdings in StoneCo by 218.4% in the third quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 4,234,251 shares of the company's stock valued at $80,070,000 after purchasing an additional 2,904,432 shares during the last quarter. Alta Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in StoneCo during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,631,000. Jain Global LLC raised its stake in shares of StoneCo by 381.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jain Global LLC now owns 769,596 shares of the company's stock valued at $14,553,000 after buying an additional 609,627 shares during the last quarter. Truxt Investmentos Ltda. acquired a new position in shares of StoneCo in the 3rd quarter valued at about $12,116,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 23.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,330,177 shares of the company's stock valued at $62,974,000 after buying an additional 635,677 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

STNE has been the topic of several analyst reports. BTIG Research reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of StoneCo in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. UBS Group decreased their price target on StoneCo from $19.50 to $19.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Weiss Ratings upgraded StoneCo from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Santander cut shares of StoneCo from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of StoneCo from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, StoneCo has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $19.29.

StoneCo Trading Down 1.2%

STNE stock opened at $15.10 on Friday. StoneCo Ltd. has a 52-week low of $11.95 and a 52-week high of $19.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market cap of $4.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.87, a PEG ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 1.89. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $15.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.91.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 3rd. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $675.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $704.26 million. StoneCo had a return on equity of 21.55% and a net margin of 15.38%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StoneCo Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a special dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 24th will be given a $2.53 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 24th.

StoneCo 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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