StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Stock Rating Upgraded by Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Free Report) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $15.00 price objective on the stock, up from their prior price objective of $9.00.

Several other brokerages have also commented on STNE. Barclays upped their target price on StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. 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 lowered their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $15.38.

StoneCo Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ STNE traded up $0.32 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $13.75. The stock had a trading volume of 5,414,695 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,697,809. The company's 50 day moving average price is $10.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. StoneCo has a twelve month low of $7.72 and a twelve month high of $17.09. The firm has a market cap of $4.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.05.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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, sell-side analysts expect that StoneCo will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of StoneCo

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 277,963 shares during the last quarter. Invst LLC lifted its position in StoneCo by 43.1% in the 3rd quarter. Invst LLC now owns 32,759 shares of the company's stock valued at $369,000 after acquiring an additional 9,867 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in StoneCo during the 3rd quarter valued at about $156,000. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new stake in StoneCo during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $567,000. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of StoneCo by 100.0% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 29,228 shares of the company's stock worth $329,000 after purchasing an additional 14,614 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company's stock.

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.