StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Short Interest Update

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 33,980,000 shares, an increase of 19.9% from the February 13th total of 28,340,000 shares. Currently, 12.4% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 6,130,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.5 days.

StoneCo Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:STNE traded down $0.08 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $11.10. The company had a trading volume of 9,173,727 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,439,253. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.96. The firm 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. StoneCo 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 quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42.

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

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On StoneCo

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 13,956,554 shares of the company's stock valued at $111,234,000 after purchasing an additional 2,534,079 shares in the last quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. lifted its stake in StoneCo by 46.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 4,446,709 shares in the last quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. boosted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 2,173,389 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 2,692,558 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of StoneCo by 40.3% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,993,611 shares of the company's stock worth $55,739,000 after purchasing an additional 2,008,710 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on STNE. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded StoneCo from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $9.00 target price (down previously from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $14.50.

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.