ARK Investment Management LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

ARK Investment Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,129,302 shares of the company’s stock after selling 38,287 shares during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $38,391,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,824,000. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 27.7% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 92,464 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,667,000 after purchasing an additional 20,036 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 57.7% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 38,962 shares of the company’s stock valued at $702,000 after purchasing an additional 14,258 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 35,547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $641,000 after purchasing an additional 1,151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 17.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,672,681 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,518,000 after purchasing an additional 397,101 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on STNE shares. Citigroup raised their price objective on StoneCo from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Bank of America raised their price objective on StoneCo from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 11th. Barclays lifted their price target on StoneCo from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. UBS Group lowered StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $18.00 to $21.00 in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $12.00 to $21.00 in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, StoneCo currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.64.

StoneCo Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:STNE opened at $16.72 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $17.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a market capitalization of $5.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.55 and a beta of 2.37. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12-month low of $8.73 and a 12-month high of $19.46.

StoneCo 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.