Absolute Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. Decreases Position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Absolute Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. decreased its stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 81.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 342,206 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,517,510 shares during the period. StoneCo comprises about 1.2% of Absolute Gestao de Investimentos Ltda.’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Absolute Gestao de Investimentos Ltda.’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $2,727,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in StoneCo by 254.7% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 4,256 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 3,056 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 627.0% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 4,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 3,925 shares during the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 166.7% in the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo during the 4th quarter worth about $56,000. Finally, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ grew its holdings in StoneCo by 31.6% during the 4th quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 7,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays raised their price target on StoneCo from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Citigroup upgraded StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $9.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target 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 analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StoneCo has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $15.38.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of STNE stock opened at $13.77 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.76, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.05. 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 Ltd. has a twelve month low of $7.72 and a twelve month high of $17.09. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $10.07.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $582.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.59 billion. On average, analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal 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.