Teacher Retirement System of Texas Takes Position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 25,254 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $265,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in StoneCo by 1,486.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,903 shares of the company's stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 2,720 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its stake in StoneCo by 627.0% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 4,551 shares of the company's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 3,925 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in StoneCo by 143.0% during the 1st quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,614 shares of the company's stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 2,715 shares during the last quarter. Wexford Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at about $88,000. Finally, Advisory Services Network LLC boosted its position in shares of StoneCo by 90.6% during the 4th quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 11,210 shares of the company's stock valued at $89,000 after acquiring an additional 5,330 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company's stock.

StoneCo Stock Down 8.3%

StoneCo stock traded down $1.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $13.67. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,395,635 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,822,806. StoneCo Ltd. has a 52-week low of $7.72 and a 52-week high of $16.68. The firm's 50 day moving average is $14.51 and its 200 day moving average is $11.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The company has a market cap of $3.91 billion, a PE ratio of -17.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.36 and a beta of 1.94.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.02. StoneCo had a positive return on equity of 16.65% and a negative net margin of 8.90%. The business had revenue of $625.86 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.68 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup upgraded shares of StoneCo from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $9.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on StoneCo from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Santander upgraded StoneCo from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on StoneCo from $15.50 to $18.50 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut StoneCo from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $15.07.

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.