Legal & General Group Plc Has $14.02 Million Stock Holdings in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its stake in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) by 24.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,758,773 shares of the company's stock after selling 568,083 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.57% of StoneCo worth $14,017,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in STNE. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 21,082 shares of the company's stock worth $168,000 after purchasing an additional 1,205 shares during the last quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ increased its stake in StoneCo by 31.6% in the 4th quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 7,500 shares of the company's stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800 shares in the last quarter. Aviva PLC boosted its stake in StoneCo by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 176,900 shares of the company's stock worth $1,410,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. increased its stake in shares of StoneCo by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 20,781 shares of the company's stock worth $166,000 after acquiring an additional 2,044 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC boosted its position in StoneCo by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 15,051 shares of the company's stock valued at $120,000 after purchasing an additional 2,656 shares during the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STNE has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded StoneCo from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Citigroup reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $9.00 target price (down previously from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $14.50.

StoneCo Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STNE traded down $0.06 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $12.21. 399,561 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,661,952. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $10.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.54, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. StoneCo Ltd. has a twelve month low of $7.72 and a twelve month high of $17.09.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $582.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.59 billion. StoneCo had a net margin of 16.02% and a return on equity of 13.92%. As a group, research analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current 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.