Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of StoneCo Call Options (NASDAQ:STNE)

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 8,575 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 41% compared to the typical daily volume of 6,092 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in StoneCo by 22.2% during the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 13,956,554 shares of the company's stock worth $111,234,000 after purchasing an additional 2,534,079 shares during the last quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. increased its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 46.8% during the 4th quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 13,951,183 shares of the company's stock worth $111,191,000 after buying an additional 4,446,709 shares during the last quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. increased its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 23.0% during the 4th quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 11,623,836 shares of the company's stock worth $92,642,000 after buying an additional 2,173,389 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,972,037 shares of the company's stock valued at $89,765,000 after buying an additional 2,692,558 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 40.3% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,993,611 shares of the company's stock valued at $55,739,000 after acquiring an additional 2,008,710 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Citigroup reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $9.00 price objective (down from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays increased their target price on StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised 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 issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $14.50.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of StoneCo stock traded down $0.08 on Friday, hitting $11.10. 9,173,727 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,442,496. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $9.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.92. The stock has a market capitalization 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. StoneCo has a 1-year low of $7.72 and a 1-year high of $17.93.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $582.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.59 billion. StoneCo had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 16.02%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that StoneCo will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StoneCo Company 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.