StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Shares Up 6.3%

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)’s stock price traded up 6.3% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $16.83 and last traded at $16.82. 833,132 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 5,159,013 shares. The stock had previously closed at $15.83.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

STNE has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group lowered shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 11th. Citigroup lifted their target price on StoneCo from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Barclays lifted their price objective on StoneCo from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $12.00 to $21.00 in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.64.

StoneCo Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $5.25 billion, a PE ratio of 16.55 and a beta of 2.37. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $17.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StoneCo

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of StoneCo by 27.8% during the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 21,451,911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $204,437,000 after acquiring an additional 4,666,575 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in StoneCo during the fourth quarter valued at $58,777,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo in the 1st quarter worth $35,504,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the 4th quarter worth about $36,887,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 85.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,404,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,913,000 after buying an additional 2,034,974 shares in the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.