News

The following are today's upgrades for Validea's Growth Investor model based on the published strategy of Martin Zweig. This strategy looks for growth stocks with persistent accelerating earnings and sales growth, reasonable valuations and low debt.

STONECO LTD (STNE) is a mid-cap value stock in the Software & Programming industry. The rating according to our strategy based on Martin Zweig changed from 69% to 85% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.

Company Description: StoneCo Ltd. is a provider of financial technology and software solutions. The Company has designed its cloud-based technology platform, namely the Stone Business Model, for its clients to connect, get paid and grow their businesses. The Company's segments include financial services and software. In financial services, it offers payments, digital banking and credit solutions, focused mainly on micro, small and medium businesses (MSMBs). In software, it offers point of sale (POS) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for different retail and service verticals, customer relationship management (CRM), engagement tools, e-commerce and Omnichannel solutions, among others. It also provides digital product enhancements to help its merchants improve their consumers' experience, such as its split-payment processing, multi-payment processing, recurring payments for subscriptions, and one-click buy functionality. It provides its clients with store, life and health insurance solutions.

The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.

Detailed Analysis of STONECO LTD

STNE Guru Analysis

STNE Fundamental Analysis

Martin Zweig Portfolio

About Martin Zweig: During the 15 years that it was monitored, Zweig's stock recommendation newsletter returned an average of 15.9 percent per year, during which time it was ranked number one based on risk-adjusted returns by Hulbert Financial Digest. Zweig has managed both mutual and hedge funds during his career, and he's put the fortune he's compiled to some interesting uses. He has owned what Forbes reported was the most expensive apartment in New York, a $70 million penthouse that sits atop Manhattan's Pierre Hotel, and he is a collector of all sorts of pop culture and historical memorabilia -- among his purchases are the gun used by Clint Eastwood in "Dirty Harry", a stock certificate signed by Commodore Vanderbilt, and even two old-fashioned gas pumps similar to those he'd seen at a nearby gas station while growing up in Cleveland, according to published reports.

About Validea: Validea is aninvestment researchservice that follows the published strategies of investment legends. Validea offers both stock analysis and model portfolios based on gurus who have outperformed the market over the long-term, including Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch and Martin Zweig. For more information about Validea, click here

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.