Teacher Retirement System of Texas Purchases New Stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 25,254 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $265,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in shares of StoneCo by 22.2% during the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 13,956,554 shares of the company's stock valued at $111,234,000 after buying an additional 2,534,079 shares during the period. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. grew its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 46.8% during the fourth quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 13,951,183 shares of the company's stock worth $111,191,000 after purchasing an additional 4,446,709 shares in the last quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. grew its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 11,623,836 shares of the company's stock worth $92,642,000 after purchasing an additional 2,173,389 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 40.3% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,993,611 shares of the company's stock worth $55,739,000 after purchasing an additional 2,008,710 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in StoneCo by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,419,797 shares of the company's stock worth $43,120,000 after buying an additional 229,453 shares in the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

StoneCo Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of StoneCo stock traded up $0.05 on Wednesday, reaching $14.07. The company had a trading volume of 5,016,827 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,835,177. The firm has a market cap of $4.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -18.04, a P/E/G ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 1.94. 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 firm's 50-day moving average price is $14.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.88. StoneCo Ltd. has a 1 year low of $7.72 and a 1 year high of $16.68.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $625.86 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.68 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on STNE shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded StoneCo from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Barclays boosted their price objective on StoneCo from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company 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 research report on Wednesday, May 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on StoneCo from $15.50 to $18.50 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded StoneCo from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $9.00 to $15.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $15.07.

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.