StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Shares Down 7% Following Analyst Downgrade

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) shares traded down 7% on Wednesday after Susquehanna lowered their price target on the stock from $22.00 to $19.00. Susquehanna currently has a positive rating on the stock. StoneCo traded as low as $10.69 and last traded at $10.78. 748,343 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 5,061,006 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.59.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on STNE. Barclays reduced their target price on StoneCo from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of StoneCo to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "underweight" rating and set a $7.00 price target (down previously from $16.50) on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $17.40.

Institutional Trading of StoneCo

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the 1st quarter valued at about $41,000. Central Bank & Trust Co. bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Y.D. More Investments Ltd raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 90.2% during the 2nd quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 4,798 shares of the company's stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 2,275 shares in the last quarter. Invst LLC bought a new position in StoneCo during the first quarter worth $172,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd acquired a new position in StoneCo in the third quarter worth $125,000. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company's stock.

StoneCo Stock Down 9.6 %

The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $11.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $12.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The company has a market capitalization of $3.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.41, a PEG ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.29.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The company reported $0.30 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 the consensus estimate of $590.74 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 16.02% and a return on equity of 13.69%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.