MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the seventeen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, fourteen have assigned a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $2,402.81.

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on MELI shares. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,150.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. New Street Research upgraded MercadoLibre from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $2,000.00 to $2,300.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays boosted 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. Bank of America raised their price target on MercadoLibre from $2,500.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on MercadoLibre from $2,400.00 to $2,750.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd.

MercadoLibre Price Performance

Shares of MercadoLibre stock opened at $1,934.03 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $2,034.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1,970.61. MercadoLibre has a 52 week low of $1,324.99 and a 52 week high of $2,374.54. The company has a market capitalization of $98.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.30, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MercadoLibre

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MELI. Human Investing LLC bought a new position in MercadoLibre during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of MercadoLibre during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 220.0% in the fourth quarter. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 16 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 11 shares during the period. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 16 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 8 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd purchased a new position in MercadoLibre during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

MercadoLibre Company Profile

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.