MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eleven have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $1,922.08.

MELI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of MercadoLibre from $1,900.00 to $1,800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of MercadoLibre from $1,800.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 13th. DZ Bank raised shares of MercadoLibre from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $1,685.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Dbs Bank raised shares of MercadoLibre from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $1,800.00 target price on shares of MercadoLibre in a research note on Friday, May 3rd.

MercadoLibre Price Performance

NASDAQ:MELI opened at $1,651.69 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The firm has a market cap of $83.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.60. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $1,654.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $1,619.65. MercadoLibre has a 1-year low of $1,141.04 and a 1-year high of $1,825.00.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported $6.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.64 by $0.14. MercadoLibre had a net margin of 7.17% and a return on equity of 39.46%. The firm had revenue of $4.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.84 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.97 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 36.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that MercadoLibre will post 33.38 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of MercadoLibre

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MELI. GQG Partners LLC increased its stake in MercadoLibre by 442.2% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 794,782 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,201,679,000 after purchasing an additional 648,198 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 74.8% during the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 1,162,724 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,838,964,000 after buying an additional 497,535 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of MercadoLibre during the fourth quarter worth about $554,386,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 43.2% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 771,893 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,167,073,000 after buying an additional 232,787 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 112,333.8% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 146,164 shares of the company’s stock worth $229,703,000 after buying an additional 146,034 shares in the last quarter. 87.62% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About MercadoLibre

MercadoLibre, Inc operates online commerce platforms in the United States. It operates Mercado Libre Marketplace, an automated online commerce platform that enables businesses, merchants, and individuals to list merchandise and conduct sales and purchases digitally; and Mercado Pago FinTech platform, a financial technology solution platform, which facilitates transactions on and off its marketplaces by providing a mechanism that allows its users to send and receive payments online, as well as allows users to transfer money through their websites or on the apps.