Sustainable Growth Advisers LP Sells 3,546 Shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)

Sustainable Growth Advisers LP reduced its stake in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 138,534 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,546 shares during the period. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP’s holdings in MercadoLibre were worth $235,569,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC bought a new position in MercadoLibre in the fourth quarter worth about $1,105,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 8,403 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,289,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners increased its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 38.1% during the fourth quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners now owns 468 shares of the company’s stock valued at $796,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. Bennbridge Ltd bought a new position in shares of MercadoLibre during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $23,782,000. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 129.9% during the fourth quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 10,797 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,674,000 after purchasing an additional 6,101 shares in the last quarter. 87.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Raymond James raised shares of MercadoLibre from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $2,250.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,480.00 to $2,450.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Wedbush decreased their target price on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,500.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,350.00 to $2,760.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $2,402.81.

MercadoLibre Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of MELI stock opened at $1,989.70 on Friday. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 12-month low of $1,324.99 and a 12-month high of $2,374.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $1,963.24 and its 200 day moving average is $1,969.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.64.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $12.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.21 by $2.40. MercadoLibre had a net margin of 9.20% and a return on equity of 51.89%. The company had revenue of $6.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.94 billion. Research analysts expect that MercadoLibre, Inc. will post 43.96 earnings per share for the current year.

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.