StoneCo Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:STNE)

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 8,575 call options on the company. This is an increase of 41% compared to the average daily volume of 6,092 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on STNE shares. 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 note on Monday, December 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. 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. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $9.00 price target (down from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of StoneCo from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. One 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 a consensus target price of $14.38.

StoneCo Stock Up 15.5 %

STNE stock opened at $11.38 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market cap of $3.52 billion, a PE ratio of 8.89, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.33. StoneCo has a 12 month low of $7.72 and a 12 month high of $17.93. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.97.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $582.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.59 billion. StoneCo had a net margin of 16.02% and a return on equity of 13.92%. Equities research analysts forecast that StoneCo will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of StoneCo by 327.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,580,679 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,798,000 after purchasing an additional 1,210,817 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in StoneCo by 51.0% in 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 last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC acquired a new position in StoneCo in the 3rd quarter valued at $9,091,000. Barclays PLC grew its stake in StoneCo by 170.8% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in StoneCo by 313.4% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 472,758 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,323,000 after buying an additional 358,398 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

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.