StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Short Interest Update

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) saw a significant drop in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 9,820,000 shares, a drop of 18.5% from the March 31st total of 12,050,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 5,070,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.9 days.

Institutional Trading of StoneCo

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. USA Financial Formulas acquired a new position in StoneCo during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in StoneCo during the 4th quarter worth approximately $56,000. Tucker Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in StoneCo during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $60,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its position in StoneCo by 45.5% during the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 7,149 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,000 after purchasing an additional 2,235 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on STNE. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of StoneCo from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of StoneCo from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $12.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. UBS Group cut shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Susquehanna cut their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.00.

StoneCo Stock Up 5.0 %

STNE stock traded up $0.78 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $16.35. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,294,173 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,732,987. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. StoneCo has a twelve month low of $9.34 and a twelve month high of $19.46. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $16.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.19, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 2.34.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 18th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. StoneCo had a net margin of 13.35% and a return on equity of 11.23%. The firm had revenue of $655.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $468.47 million. As a group, equities research analysts predict that StoneCo will post 1.27 EPS for the current 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.