Short Interest in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Drops By 18.5%

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) was the target of 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 trading volume, of 5,070,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days.

StoneCo Trading Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ:STNE traded down $0.16 on Monday, hitting $16.19. 2,726,127 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,187,722. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $16.50 and a 200-day moving average of $15.65. The stock has a market cap of $5.09 billion, a PE ratio of 16.03, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 2.34. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. StoneCo has a fifty-two week low of $9.34 and a fifty-two week high of $19.46.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 18th. The company reported $0.36 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 analysts expect that StoneCo will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STNE. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in StoneCo during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. USA Financial Formulas purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at $56,000. Tucker Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in StoneCo during the 3rd quarter worth $60,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 45.5% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 7,149 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,000 after buying an additional 2,235 shares in the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $12.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Barclays reduced their price objective on StoneCo from $18.00 to $17.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on StoneCo from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. UBS Group lowered shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $18.00 to $21.00 in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of StoneCo from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, StoneCo has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.00.

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.