JPMorgan Chase & Co. Lowers StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Price Target to $20.00

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) had its price objective lowered by research analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $21.00 to $20.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 34.18% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on STNE. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of StoneCo in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Santander downgraded shares of StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Zacks Research raised shares of StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.29.

StoneCo Stock Performance

StoneCo stock traded up $0.30 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $14.91. 6,925,947 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,283,770. StoneCo has a 12-month low of $11.72 and a 12-month high of $19.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market cap of $4.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 1.89. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $15.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.95.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 3rd. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $675.42 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $704.26 million. Equities research analysts predict that StoneCo will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of StoneCo

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ninety One UK Ltd raised its position in StoneCo by 218.4% during the third quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 4,234,251 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,070,000 after acquiring an additional 2,904,432 shares during the last quarter. Alta Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in StoneCo during the third quarter worth about $1,631,000. Jain Global LLC raised its position in StoneCo by 381.1% during the third quarter. Jain Global LLC now owns 769,596 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,553,000 after acquiring an additional 609,627 shares during the last quarter. Truxt Investmentos Ltda. acquired a new position in StoneCo during the third quarter worth about $12,116,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in StoneCo by 23.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,330,177 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,974,000 after acquiring an additional 635,677 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

StoneCo Company 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.