Short Interest in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Rises By 19.9%

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 33,980,000 shares, an increase of 19.9% from the February 13th total of 28,340,000 shares. Approximately 12.4% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 6,130,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.5 days.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of STNE opened at $9.85 on Wednesday. StoneCo has a fifty-two week low of $7.72 and a fifty-two week high of $17.93. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $9.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.96. The company has a market cap of $3.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.70, a PEG ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StoneCo

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in shares of StoneCo by 22.2% in the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 13,956,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,234,000 after purchasing an additional 2,534,079 shares during the last quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. increased its position in shares of StoneCo by 46.8% in the 4th quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 13,951,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,191,000 after purchasing an additional 4,446,709 shares during the last quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. increased its position in shares of StoneCo by 23.0% in the 4th quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 11,623,836 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,642,000 after purchasing an additional 2,173,389 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of 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. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of StoneCo by 40.3% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,993,611 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,739,000 after buying an additional 2,008,710 shares during the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STNE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $9.00 price objective (down from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a report on Thursday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $14.38.

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.