Truffle Hound Capital LLC Purchases 275,000 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Key Points

• Truffle Hound Capital LLC increased its stake in StoneCo Ltd. by 220.0%, owning 400,000 shares following the acquisition of 275,000 additional shares in the first quarter.
• Several institutional investors also boosted their stakes in StoneCo, with PNC Financial Services Group increasing holdings by 18.4% and XTX Topco Ltd. increasing by 93.5% during the same period.
• Wall Street analysts have mixed opinions on StoneCo's stock, with an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and recent price targets raised by firms like Barclays and JPMorgan Chase.

Truffle Hound Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) by 220.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 400,000 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 275,000 shares during the quarter. StoneCo accounts for about 1.5% of Truffle Hound Capital LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Truffle Hound Capital LLC owned about 0.14% of StoneCo worth $4,192,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in StoneCo by 13.6% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 7,708 shares of the company's stock valued at $81,000 after acquiring an additional 924 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. grew its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 21,762 shares of the company's stock valued at $228,000 after purchasing an additional 981 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in StoneCo by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 21,082 shares of the company's stock valued at $168,000 after purchasing an additional 1,205 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in StoneCo by 18.4% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,473 shares of the company's stock worth $89,000 after acquiring an additional 1,317 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aviva PLC boosted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 176,900 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,410,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STNE has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Citigroup upgraded shares of StoneCo from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the company from $9.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of StoneCo from $15.50 to $18.50 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Wall Street Zen lowered StoneCo from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Santander raised StoneCo from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $15.07.

StoneCo Price Performance

NASDAQ STNE traded up $0.20 on Monday, reaching $12.77. 3,258,321 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,681,851. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12 month low of $7.72 and a 12 month high of $16.68. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $14.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.18. The company has a market cap of $3.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.37, a P/E/G ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 1.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $625.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.68 billion. StoneCo had a positive return on equity of 16.65% and a negative net margin of 8.90%. As a group, research analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.