StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Reaches New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $19.70 and last traded at $19.85, with a volume of 225877 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $19.46.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on STNE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on StoneCo from $15.50 to $18.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of StoneCo to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on StoneCo from $15.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Wall Street Zen raised StoneCo from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $16.56.

StoneCo Stock Up 0.3%

The business’s 50-day moving average is $15.98 and its 200-day moving average is $14.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.48. The firm has a market cap of $5.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -27.94, a PEG ratio of 0.38 and a beta of 1.91.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.03. StoneCo had a positive return on equity of 18.71% and a negative net margin of 8.37%.The business had revenue of $643.82 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.78 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StoneCo

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 3.1% during the first quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 11,982,873 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,581,000 after purchasing an additional 359,037 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in StoneCo in the 1st quarter valued at $70,502,000. Azora Capital LP boosted its stake in StoneCo by 88.2% in the 2nd quarter. Azora Capital LP now owns 4,863,331 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,008,000 after purchasing an additional 2,279,821 shares during the period. JGP Global Gestao de Recursos Ltda. raised its stake in shares of StoneCo by 484.8% in the 1st quarter. JGP Global Gestao de Recursos Ltda. now owns 4,472,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,874,000 after purchasing an additional 3,707,941 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the second quarter valued at about $44,366,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.