StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Short Interest Update

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 13,150,000 shares, an increase of 27.7% from the February 29th total of 10,300,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 5,120,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Institutional Trading of StoneCo

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in StoneCo by 27.8% in the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 21,451,911 shares of the company's stock valued at $204,437,000 after buying an additional 4,666,575 shares during the period. Nucleo Capital LTDA. increased its stake in shares of StoneCo by 10.0% during the third quarter. Nucleo Capital LTDA. now owns 6,138,276 shares of the company's stock worth $65,495,000 after purchasing an additional 557,186 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of StoneCo by 5.4% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,895,317 shares of the company's stock worth $62,366,000 after purchasing an additional 251,888 shares during the period. MFN Partners Management LP increased its stake in shares of StoneCo by 100.0% during the first quarter. MFN Partners Management LP now owns 4,000,000 shares of the company's stock worth $46,800,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000,000 shares during the period. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in shares of StoneCo by 28.3% during the third quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 3,930,893 shares of the company's stock worth $41,943,000 after purchasing an additional 866,803 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company's stock.

StoneCo Stock Performance

NASDAQ:STNE traded down $0.11 on Friday, hitting $16.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,708,445 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,737,115. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $17.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $14.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.45 and a beta of 2.37. StoneCo has a one year low of $8.73 and a one year high of $19.46.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STNE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised StoneCo from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $12.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Citigroup upped their price objective on StoneCo from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Bank of America upped their price objective on StoneCo from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, December 11th. UBS Group cut StoneCo from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on StoneCo from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, StoneCo currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $18.64.

StoneCo Company 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.

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