StoneCo Ltd. $STNE Position Boosted by Clark Capital Management Group Inc.

Clark Capital Management Group Inc. boosted its holdings in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,387,830 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 56,837 shares during the quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. owned 1.18% of StoneCo worth $64,064,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. USA Financial Formulas bought a new position in shares of StoneCo in the third quarter worth $55,000. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. acquired a new position in shares of StoneCo during the third quarter valued at $55,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of StoneCo by 64.2% during the third quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 2,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 1,151 shares in the last quarter. Concord Wealth Partners bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the third quarter valued at about $60,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 773.6% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,608 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 3,195 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on STNE. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Santander lowered shares of StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, StoneCo presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.44.

StoneCo Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of STNE stock opened at $13.81 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $16.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.03, a P/E/G ratio of 0.23 and a beta of 1.78. StoneCo Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $9.32 and a fifty-two week high of $19.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. StoneCo had a net margin of 15.38% and a return on equity of 21.55%. The firm had revenue of $675.42 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $704.26 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StoneCo Profile

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.