StoneCo Ltd.

Price story Before the numbers, the tape. A stock price moves through four repeating seasons: a flat base (stage 1), an advance (2), a top (3), a decline (4). Where the price sits in that cycle frames everything below.

StoneCo Ltd. trades at $11.2, in a downtrend and 4 weeks into that stage. That is −20.2% against its own 200-day average. It sits at 17% of a 52-week range of $10 to $19. On relative strength it is currently behind the S&P 500 on a trailing-13-week view (16 weeks and counting).

Today the stock is in a downtrend — week 4 of stage 4. At $11.2 it trades −20.2% versus its 200-day average and sits at 17% of its 52-week range ($10–$19).

Against the market, two honest reads. Cumulative: over the last 7.8 years the stock moved −64% while the S&P 500 moved +191% — behind the index over the full window. Recent form: on a trailing-13-week view the stock is currently behind (16 weeks and counting; last ahead the week of 2026-04-17) — the ribbon below is that same metric, week by week.

What would end the trend, mechanically: two Friday closes in a row below the 200-day line. That is the exit rule — no debates.

Valuation P/E is the price of $1 of annual profit: how many dollars the market pays for each dollar the company earns in a year.

StoneCo Ltd. trades at 4.3× P/E, against too little history to rank. This places the multiple against the stock’s own record, and says nothing about what the business is worth.

Today's P/E of 4.3× is against too little history to rank. This is a comparison against the stock's own history — not a claim about what it is worth.

Why the multiple sits where it does: over the past year annual EPS moved +32.0% against a −10.7% price move — earnings outran the price, pushing the multiple DOWN its own range.

The price move, decomposed: over 3y, of the −5.9%/yr price move, ~+78.0%/yr came from earnings growth and ~−83.9 pp from the multiple (compressing). The split is the honest approximate (price return minus earnings growth); it makes the rally itself visible instead of hiding it behind the percentile.

Put together: the multiple is unremarkable against its own past, so the story rests on the earnings line underneath it, not the multiple.

Stage: No read Every business sits somewhere on a fundamental arc, and this page names the spot before anything else. The last twelve quarters of revenue, profit and EPS growth — plus the return the business earns on its capital — are read as curves: Deteriorating (the curves are falling), Turning around (a trough has just formed and the last few quarters lift off it), Improving (the climb off the trough is sustained), Consistent (steadily positive with healthy returns), Topping out (still high but decelerating from the peak). When the curves genuinely disagree the read is Mixed; too little history is No read. CAGR (compound annual growth rate) is the smooth yearly pace that turns the starting value into the latest one — the fairest way to compare growth across different time spans. Read the columns together: if the 1-year number towers over the 10-year, recent growth is running hotter than the long-run trend. A dash means that window is not held, or the base year was a loss (where a growth rate is not meaningful).

StoneCo Ltd. reads as no read on its fundamental arc. Under eight usable quarters on the growth trio — not enough history for an honest trajectory read. The read is built from 12 quarters across 3 curves, on partial evidence.

Why it matters: with too little history, an honest page says so instead of guessing a trajectory.

The latest quarter’s profit carries a one-off item larger than the operating base, so the profit curve is shown but does not vote in the stage call.

Fewer than eight usable quarters on the growth curves — this page will not guess a trajectory from a stub of history.

4-Factor Sector Score

No sector-relative score — StoneCo Ltd. is not among the largest members shown in this industry comparison for Software - Infrastructure.

The score is a rank WITHIN a peer set: every metric is scored by percentile against the other members. Without the peer set there is no score to state, so none is invented here.

Revenue Revenue is the top line: everything the company billed its customers in the period.

StoneCo Ltd. reported $0.7 B of revenue in the Mar 26 quarter, −17.0% year on year. Over 4 years it has compounded at 5.8% a year. The last full year, FY25, came in at $3.4 B. The last four reported quarters add to $3.2 B.

FY25 revenue came in at $3.4 B (−12.9% on the year), capping 4 years at 5.8% compound. The latest quarter (Mar 26) printed $0.7 B, −17.0% year on year.

Pace check: the last four quarters averaged −14.3% growth against the decade's 5.8% — the current year is running slower than its own long-run rate.

Acceleration check: trailing-twelve-month revenue grew −14.3% over the last 4 quarters against −20.8%/yr over the last 8 — accelerating; TTM profit +65.4% vs +43.5%/yr — accelerating.

Operating margin Operating margin is what is left of every $100 of sales after running the business, before interest and tax. It is the cleanest read on pricing power and cost control.

StoneCo Ltd.'s operating margin is −138.4% in the Mar 26 quarter, −65.7 percentage points against the same quarter a year ago. Across 5 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged −90.2% to −21.0%. The current quarter is running below every full year in that window.

The latest quarter's operating margin is −138.4%, −65.7 pp against the same quarter a year ago. Across 5 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged −90.2%–−21.0%.

🚨 Why the margin moved: operating margin went −65.7 pp year on year while gross margin went −45.8 pp — the loss came mostly from the gross line: input costs and pricing.

Net profit Net profit is what survives every cost, interest and tax — the number EPS, dividends and book value all grow from.

StoneCo Ltd. earned $1.8 B of net profit in the Mar 26 quarter. That quarter carries a one-off item larger than its own revenue, so the year-on-year figure is an artefact rather than a trading result. Full-year FY25 profit was $2.4 B. That is 243.8% of the quarter's revenue. The same quarter a year earlier earned $0.5 B.

Mar 26 profit was $1.8 B, +249.0% year on year — the 5th consecutive quarter of growth. On the full year, FY25 printed $2.4 B (+17.8%).

🚨 Read this profit with care: at $1.8 B it is larger than the whole quarter's revenue of $0.7 B — no operating business earns more than it sells, so this is a one-off item (a debt-to-equity conversion, a tax write-back or an asset sale), not money the business earned. The underlying operations are running at −138.4% operating margin; the year-on-year jump and any P/E built on this number are artefacts of the one-off, not a real earnings turn.

Cash flow — the router The P&L says what was earned; the cash-flow statement says what actually arrived. Operating cash flow (CFO) against profit is the cleanest lie detector in the accounts.

Over the last 3 fiscal years −22% of StoneCo Ltd.'s reported profit arrived as operating cash — a gap worth watching. In FY25 that was $0.7 B of operating cash against $2.4 B of profit. After $0.7 B of capital spending, $−0.0 B was left as free cash. Cash resolution here is annual, because quarterly cash statements are not published.

FY25: operating cash of $0.7 B against reported profit of $2.4 B, leaving free cash of $−0.0 B after $0.7 B of capital spending. Across the last 3 fiscal years the conversion rate is −22% of profit.

Cash-flow readings here are annual — that is the resolution our series carries, so this section moves once a year.

🚨 Why: conversion is measured cleanly, but the working-capital day-counts behind it sit below what we hold — the move is shown without inventing its driver.

Router verdict: the visible cash user is investment — the next section checks what the spending is buying.

Where the cash goes Working capital is the cash tied up between paying suppliers and getting paid: debtor days (customers owe), inventory days (stock waits), and the cash conversion cycle (the whole loop, in days of sales).

StoneCo Ltd. does not report the debtor, inventory and payable day-counts a cash cycle is built from, so this section reads the investment side instead. Capital spending ran $2.0 B over the last 3 years. Averaged over those years that is 19.7% of FY25 revenue a year.

Working-capital day-counts are not in our numbers for this stock, so this section reads the investment side — where the cash is being put to work.

On the investment side: capital spending of $2.0 B over the last 3 fiscal years.

The synthesis: the cash is going into capacity, not disappearing into the cycle — the question becomes whether the new capacity earns.

Return on equity Return on equity (ROE) is the profit the business earns on its shareholders’ money. With the full capital-employed split not in our numbers, ROE is the cleanest long ladder we can draw here.

StoneCo Ltd. earns a ROE of 22% in FY25. That is up from a trough of −10% in FY21. Return on invested capital clears the cost of that capital by +19.8 percentage points, so growth here adds value rather than only size. The wiring behind it is 70.4% net margin on 0.05× asset turns.

FY25 ROE is 22%, recovered from a FY21 trough of −10% — the full ladder below shows the fall and the climb, undoctored.

Why the return is what it is — the wiring (FY25): 70.4% net margin × 0.05× asset turns × 5.65× balance-sheet leverage ≈ 19.9% on equity. Margin is doing the heavy lifting; leverage is a meaningful part of the equation.

The capstone test — ROIC − WACC: 31.4% − 11.6% = a +19.8 pp spread. The 11.6% is an estimate of this company's own cost of capital — read the sign and the size of the spread, not the decimals. A spread this wide means every dollar reinvested creates more than a dollar of value — the engine compounds.

Dividend

StoneCo Ltd. pays no dividend. Across the last 12 reported quarters it has declared no dividend per share, so there is no payout history to chart and no yield to quote. Companies at this stage typically reinvest earnings rather than distribute them, which makes the cash-flow and reinvestment sections the place that cash shows up.

StoneCo Ltd. does not currently pay a dividend. Across the last 12 reported quarters the company has declared no dividend per share, so there is no payout history to chart and no yield to quote. Companies at this stage typically reinvest earnings instead of distributing them.

Debt Debt-to-equity says how much of the business is funded by borrowings. Low is the safe corner; the trend matters as much as the level.

StoneCo Ltd. carries total debt of $25.9 B against shareholder equity of $12.3 B as of Mar 26, a debt-to-equity of 2.11. On the annual view that ratio went from 0.77 in FY21 to 2.60 in FY25. Read the returns elsewhere on this page with that leverage in mind.

Mar 26: total debt of $25.9 B against shareholder equity of $12.3 B — a debt-to-equity of 2.11. On the annual view, debt-to-equity went from 0.77 (FY21) to 2.60 (FY25). Read the returns on this page with that leverage in mind.

Ownership There is no quarter-by-quarter holder register to read here, so we read the crowd through short interest — the slice of tradable shares currently sold short, positioned for a fall.

No ownership or positioning reading is held for StoneCo Ltd., so this section names the gap rather than filling it. At typical trading volumes those positions would take about 4.1 days to buy back. There is no quarter-by-quarter holder register to read for this filer, so the crowd is read through short interest instead.

We hold no ownership or positioning reading for this stock, so this section says that plainly.

Safety line The Z-score estimates how far a company sits from balance-sheet distress — above roughly 3 is safe, below roughly 1.8 is the danger zone. It was built for manufacturers, so it is not applied to banks and lenders.

StoneCo Ltd.: the Z-score reads 1.21. A Z-score above roughly 3 reads as safe and below roughly 1.8 as the distress zone, so this sits inside the distress zone. It is a distance-to-distress estimate from the balance sheet, not a forecast of failure.

🚨 Why it matters: a Z-score of 1.21 is inside the distress zone — the balance sheet is a real risk, not a detail.

The safety line in one sentence: the Z-score reads 1.21.

Frequently asked questions