Alliancebernstein L.P. Trims Stock Position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Alliancebernstein L.P. reduced its stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) by 25.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 343,213 shares of the company's stock after selling 115,700 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned about 0.11% of StoneCo worth $2,735,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in STNE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 327.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,580,679 shares of the company's stock worth $17,798,000 after purchasing an additional 1,210,817 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,972,037 shares of the company's stock worth $89,765,000 after acquiring an additional 2,692,558 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in StoneCo by 170.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 440,682 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,962,000 after purchasing an additional 277,963 shares during the period. Commons Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $383,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in StoneCo by 36.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,190,344 shares of the company's stock worth $58,302,000 after acquiring an additional 1,374,788 shares in the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

StoneCo Trading Up 3.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ STNE traded up $0.43 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $12.26. 5,129,305 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,682,733. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.05. The company's 50 day moving average price is $10.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.88. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12 month low of $7.72 and a 12 month high of $17.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.07. StoneCo had a net margin of 16.02% and a return on equity of 13.92%. The business had revenue of $582.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.59 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.