StoneCo Ltd. $STNE Shares Bought by Bank of America Corp DE

Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 151.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,032,572 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,636,276 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $85,180,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of STNE. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its position in shares of StoneCo by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 16,959 shares of the company’s stock valued at $251,000 after acquiring an additional 741 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in StoneCo by 22.4% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 4,699 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 860 shares during the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its stake in StoneCo by 74.1% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 2,199 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 936 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in StoneCo by 77.4% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,705 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 1,180 shares during the period. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its stake in StoneCo by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 13,027 shares of the company’s stock worth $193,000 after purchasing an additional 1,207 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on STNE. Citigroup cut shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $18.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Friday, May 15th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on StoneCo from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 17th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on StoneCo in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $12.60 price objective for the company. BTIG Research lowered their price objective on StoneCo from $22.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on StoneCo from $20.00 to $16.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $14.59.

StoneCo Trading Down 4.3%

NASDAQ STNE opened at $10.60 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $10.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $13.05. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12 month low of $9.45 and a 12 month high of $19.95. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $2.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.24, a PEG ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 1.74.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42. StoneCo had a net margin of 23.82% and a return on equity of 21.05%. The business had revenue of $141.16 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $675.11 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that StoneCo Ltd. will post 2.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at StoneCo

In other news, Director Silvio Jose Morais sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total value of $101,610.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 21,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $237,090. This represents a 30.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 11.25% of the company’s stock.

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.