Quantbot Technologies LP Acquires New Stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 286,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,435,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in StoneCo by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 2,001,221 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,082,000 after acquiring an additional 253,276 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at $2,008,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the 4th quarter worth $58,777,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC bought a new position in shares of StoneCo during the 1st quarter worth $33,139,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of StoneCo by 3.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,636,619 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,794,000 after buying an additional 88,256 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

StoneCo Stock Performance

STNE opened at $12.39 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The company has a market cap of $3.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.16, a PEG ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 2.31. StoneCo Ltd. has a 52-week low of $9.34 and a 52-week high of $19.46. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $13.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $14.32.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $615.13 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $590.74 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 15.27% and a return on equity of 13.21%. Equities analysts anticipate that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on STNE. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of StoneCo from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $7.00 price objective (down previously from $16.50) on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StoneCo has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.80.

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.