Insider Selling: StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Director Sells $101,610.00 in Stock

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Director Silvio Jose Morais sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total transaction of $101,610.00. Following the sale, the director owned 21,000 shares in the company, valued at $237,090. This trade represents a 30.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

StoneCo Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:STNE opened at $10.77 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, a PE ratio of 4.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.20 and a beta of 1.73. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $11.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.07. StoneCo Ltd. has a 1 year low of $9.45 and a 1 year high of $19.95.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42. StoneCo had a net margin of 23.82% and a return on equity of 21.05%. The company had revenue of $141.16 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $675.11 million. Analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

StoneCo Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 4th. Investors of record on Friday, April 24th were paid a dividend of $2.53 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 24th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StoneCo

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STNE. BRC Global BAH Investments Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo during the fourth quarter worth approximately $84,501,000. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 435.5% during the first quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 6,662,253 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,071,000 after purchasing an additional 5,418,053 shares during the period. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 1,054.8% during the fourth quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 5,236,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,450,000 after purchasing an additional 4,783,158 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 151.7% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,032,572 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,180,000 after purchasing an additional 3,636,276 shares during the period. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the third quarter worth $58,017,000. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on STNE. Citigroup lowered shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Friday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of StoneCo from $20.00 to $16.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of StoneCo from $19.50 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, StoneCo presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.58.

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.