KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Takes Position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 50,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $405,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STNE. Truffle Hound Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of StoneCo in the fourth quarter worth $996,000. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in StoneCo in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,521,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,413,000. Xponance Inc. raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 20,781 shares of the company’s stock worth $166,000 after buying an additional 2,044 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 21,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $168,000 after acquiring an additional 1,205 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $9.00 target price (down previously from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays boosted their price objective on StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $14.50.

StoneCo Price Performance

NASDAQ STNE opened at $10.58 on Friday. StoneCo Ltd. has a 1 year low of $7.72 and a 1 year high of $17.93. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $9.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.90. The company has a market cap of $3.27 billion, a PE ratio of 8.27, a PEG ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.07. StoneCo had a net margin of 16.02% and a return on equity of 13.92%. The business had revenue of $582.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.59 billion. On average, analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

StoneCo Profile

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.