Searle & CO. Takes Position in MercadoLibre, Inc. $MELI

Searle & CO. bought a new stake in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $261,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ninety One North America Inc. raised its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 21.5% in the second quarter. Ninety One North America Inc. now owns 6,094 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,927,000 after purchasing an additional 1,080 shares during the last quarter. Banco Santander S.A. boosted its position in MercadoLibre by 221.9% in the first quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 2,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,357,000 after buying an additional 1,893 shares during the last quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in MercadoLibre by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 15,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,900,000 after buying an additional 585 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in MercadoLibre by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,235,240 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,228,460,000 after buying an additional 81,124 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC lifted its stake in MercadoLibre by 434.3% during the 2nd quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,509,000 after acquiring an additional 469 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MELI. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MercadoLibre in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Scotiabank began coverage on MercadoLibre in a research report on Monday, July 28th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $3,500.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup decreased their price objective on MercadoLibre from $2,850.00 to $2,700.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Daiwa Capital Markets started coverage on MercadoLibre in a research note on Friday, August 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $3,000.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,850.00 to $2,950.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $2,861.25.

MercadoLibre Trading Down 0.9%

MELI stock opened at $2,108.60 on Friday. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 52-week low of $1,646.00 and a 52-week high of $2,645.22. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market cap of $106.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.45, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.51. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $2,290.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $2,377.50.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $8.32 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $9.88 by ($1.56). The business had revenue of $7.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.19 billion. MercadoLibre had a net margin of 7.93% and a return on equity of 41.35%. MercadoLibre’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $7.83 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MercadoLibre, Inc. will post 43.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MercadoLibre 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.