StoneCoSTNE

The company is expected to report revenue of about 710 million dollars and earnings of 46 cents per share. This update will be an important check on whether the business is successfully growing its loan book while keeping credit losses under control.

We will also be looking for signs that more merchants are using both StoneCo's payment services and its retail software. This combination is what makes the business harder for rivals to compete with, as it is much more difficult for a store to switch providers when their entire management system is tied to the platform.

See the full quarter, and how our tracked metrics did

Key highlights

• Credit risk concerns rising: The cost of risk, which measures expected loan losses as a percentage of the total portfolio, jumped to 21.9% from 10.2% a year ago. Management cited early signs of weaker performance in newer loans and delinquency among larger clients, which could pressure profit margins if these trends continue.
• Active client base growing: StoneCo grew its total active client base 13.2% over the last year to 4.7 million merchants. While this is a healthy annual increase, the count fell 4.8% from the previous quarter as the company began charging for previously free, inactive accounts to focus on customers who actually generate revenue.
• Banking and credit expansion: The total credit portfolio more than doubled to R$3,224.9 million compared to the prior year, driven by a 122.1% surge in merchant loans. This shift toward lending helped push total revenue up 6.5% to R$3,578.0 million, as credit now accounts for a larger share of the company's income mix.
• Massive capital return: The company paid an extraordinary dividend of US$2.53 per share on May 4, 2026, following the sale of its Linx software business. This one time payment distributed approximately R$3.08 billion to shareholders, returning the cash proceeds from the divestiture directly to owners.
• Payment volume slowing: Total payment volume grew just 2.7% year over year to R$137.2 billion, a sharp slowdown from the 18% growth seen in the same period last year. Management blamed a tough economy for small merchants and a shift in consumer spending toward digital sales where the company has less of a presence.

Our take: This was a soft quarter where the expansion of the credit business is coming at a high price. While total revenue grew, the spike in the cost of risk to 21.9% suggests the company is taking on lower-quality loans to find growth. This aggressive lending shift chips away at the long-term case by introducing more volatility to the bottom line.