Quantbot Technologies LP Purchases Shares of 316,316 StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 316,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,521,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of STNE. Atria Investments Inc increased its holdings in StoneCo by 19.0% in the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 20,258 shares of the company’s stock valued at $228,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 19,877 shares of the company’s stock worth $224,000 after buying an additional 1,773 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo in the 3rd quarter worth $6,419,000. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo in the 3rd quarter worth $1,154,000. Finally, Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 584.9% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,339,972 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,088,000 after buying an additional 1,144,341 shares in the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

StoneCo Price Performance

StoneCo stock opened at $11.10 on Friday. StoneCo Ltd. has a 1 year low of $7.72 and a 1 year high of $17.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The stock has a market cap of $3.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.33. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $9.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.94.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.59 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on STNE. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $9.00 price target (down from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $14.50.

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.