StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Shares Up 6.7% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) shot up 6.7% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $10.27 and last traded at $10.3070. 1,025,759 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 5,337,819 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.66.

Analyst Ratings Changes

STNE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup downgraded StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $18.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Bank of America downgraded StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. BTIG Research lowered their target price on StoneCo from $22.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 15th. UBS Group dropped their price target on StoneCo from $15.00 to $13.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. They set a “hold” rating and a $12.60 price target for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.30.

StoneCo Stock Up 6.2%

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.28 and a beta of 1.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $10.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.21.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 13th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.01. StoneCo had a return on equity of 22.19% and a net margin of 22.92%.The business had revenue of $129.73 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $708.24 million. On average, research analysts forecast that StoneCo Ltd. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at StoneCo

In other news, Director Silvio Jose Morais sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total value of $101,610.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 21,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $237,090. This represents a 30.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Institutional Trading of StoneCo

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of STNE. Corient Private Wealth LP bought a new position in StoneCo in the 2nd quarter valued at $120,000. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in StoneCo by 647.2% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 357,839 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,879,000 after buying an additional 309,951 shares during the period. AlphaGrep UK Ltd bought a new stake in StoneCo during the second quarter valued at $249,000. Raiffeisen Bank International AG purchased a new position in StoneCo during the second quarter worth about $242,000. Finally, AXQ Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the 2nd quarter valued at about $262,000. 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.