Scotia Capital Inc. Raises Holdings in MercadoLibre, Inc. $MELI

Scotia Capital Inc. grew its holdings in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 388.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,899 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,306 shares during the quarter. Scotia Capital Inc.’s holdings in MercadoLibre were worth $7,577,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 22.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 570,967 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,113,881,000 after acquiring an additional 104,554 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 21.2% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 550,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,073,823,000 after purchasing an additional 96,283 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 23.5% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 461,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $901,058,000 after purchasing an additional 87,912 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 7.0% in the second quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,235,240 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,228,460,000 after purchasing an additional 81,124 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA purchased a new stake in MercadoLibre during the second quarter worth about $198,244,000. 87.62% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MELI. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their target price on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,900.00 to $2,750.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on MercadoLibre from $2,975.00 to $2,900.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MercadoLibre in a report on Friday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,850.00 to $2,950.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on MercadoLibre from $2,850.00 to $2,700.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $2,848.82.

MercadoLibre Price Performance

MELI stock opened at $2,082.00 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $2,184.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $2,350.98. The firm has a market cap of $105.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.81, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.20. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 1 year low of $1,646.00 and a 1 year high of $2,645.22.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $8.32 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.88 by ($1.56). The company had revenue of $7.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.19 billion. MercadoLibre had a return on equity of 41.35% and a net margin of 7.93%.The business’s revenue was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $7.83 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect 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.