StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Stock Rating Upgraded by Cantor Fitzgerald

Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Thursday morning, Zacks.com reports.

STNE has been the subject of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of StoneCo from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and set a $20.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an underweight rating and issued a $7.00 target price (down previously from $16.50) on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $17.80.

StoneCo Stock Performance

StoneCo stock opened at $11.33 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The firm has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 2.30. StoneCo has a 1-year low of $9.34 and a 1-year high of $19.46. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $12.52 and a 200-day moving average of $13.80.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $615.13 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $590.74 million. StoneCo had a return on equity of 13.21% and a net margin of 15.27%. Sell-side analysts expect that StoneCo will post 1.21 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StoneCo

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in StoneCo during the fourth quarter valued at $2,008,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC bought a new position in shares of StoneCo during the first quarter valued at $33,139,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 10.2% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 8,386,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,559,000 after purchasing an additional 779,445 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in StoneCo by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,636,619 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,794,000 after purchasing an additional 88,256 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. grew its position in StoneCo by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 2,562,394 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,723,000 after purchasing an additional 113,656 shares during 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.