Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Trims Holdings in StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd reduced its holdings in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 48.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 121,343 shares of the company’s stock after selling 115,174 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $2,295,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in STNE. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in StoneCo in the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 334.4% in the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the period. USA Financial Formulas purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the third quarter worth approximately $55,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 43.6% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,170 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,267 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC grew its position in StoneCo by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,565 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 1,411 shares during the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

StoneCo Price Performance

STNE stock opened at $16.99 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $15.15 and a 200-day moving average of $16.14. The company has a market cap of $4.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -31.46, a PEG ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 1.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12-month low of $8.64 and a 12-month high of $19.95.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.43. The firm had revenue of $669.49 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $669.81 million. StoneCo had a positive return on equity of 20.18% and a negative net margin of 7.28%. As a group, equities analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on STNE. Zacks Research downgraded shares of StoneCo from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Santander downgraded StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.86.

About StoneCo

StoneCo Ltd., commonly known as Stone, is a Brazilian financial technology company that provides integrated digital payment solutions and related financial services to merchants. Through its cloud-based platform, Stone enables businesses of all sizes to accept a variety of payment methods, including point-of-sale (POS) terminals, mobile card readers and e-commerce gateways. In addition to payment acceptance, the company offers value-added services such as working capital loans, digital banking products and automated billing tools designed to help merchants manage cash flow and streamline operations.

Since its founding in 2012 by André Street and Eduardo Pontes, Stone has focused on serving over half a million merchants across Brazil’s retail, restaurant and services sectors.