LPL Financial LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)

LPL Financial LLC increased its position in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 13.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 39,490 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,678 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC owned about 0.08% of MercadoLibre worth $67,150,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MELI. Wealthfront Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of MercadoLibre in the fourth quarter worth $565,306,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its holdings in MercadoLibre by 169,952.3% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 181,956 shares of the company’s stock worth $309,405,000 after buying an additional 181,849 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in MercadoLibre by 18.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 878,996 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,803,665,000 after buying an additional 137,564 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 52.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 349,678 shares of the company’s stock valued at $717,525,000 after acquiring an additional 120,922 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in shares of MercadoLibre during the third quarter valued at approximately $114,417,000. 87.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MELI has been the topic of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,400.00 to $2,750.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. New Street Research upgraded MercadoLibre from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $2,000.00 to $2,300.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James upgraded MercadoLibre from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $2,250.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays raised their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Bank of America upped 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. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $2,402.81.

MercadoLibre Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MELI opened at $2,074.97 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $105.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.04, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.64. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 1 year low of $1,324.99 and a 1 year high of $2,374.54. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $2,018.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $1,973.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

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