Prudential Financial Inc. Purchases 3,500 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Prudential Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 17.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 23,220 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,500 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $185,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in StoneCo by 327.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,580,679 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,798,000 after purchasing an additional 1,210,817 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 51.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,972,037 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,765,000 after purchasing an additional 2,692,558 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in StoneCo by 170.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 440,682 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,962,000 after buying an additional 277,963 shares during the period. Commons Capital LLC bought a new position in StoneCo in the fourth quarter worth approximately $383,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in StoneCo by 36.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,190,344 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,302,000 after buying an additional 1,374,788 shares in the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

StoneCo Stock Up 5.0 %

NASDAQ:STNE opened at $11.53 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $10.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.86. The company has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a PE ratio of 9.01, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.05. StoneCo Ltd. has a twelve month low of $7.72 and a twelve month high of $17.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $582.20 million for 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%. Analysts anticipate that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on STNE shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased 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 reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $9.00 price objective (down previously from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently 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.