National Pension Service Raises Stock Position in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)

National Pension Service grew its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 103,451 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,111 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned 0.20% of MercadoLibre worth $162,577,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,558,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,243,832,000 after acquiring an additional 236,744 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 1.3% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,233,430 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,831,721,000 after buying an additional 28,095 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 74.8% during the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 1,162,724 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,838,964,000 after buying an additional 497,535 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 6.1% in the third quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 411,310 shares of the company’s stock worth $521,492,000 after buying an additional 23,699 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 10.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 365,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $462,999,000 after acquiring an additional 33,801 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on MELI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,000.00 to $2,150.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. DZ Bank upgraded MercadoLibre from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $1,685.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. UBS Group lowered their target price on MercadoLibre from $1,900.00 to $1,800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Susquehanna raised their price target on MercadoLibre from $1,850.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,800.00 price objective on shares of MercadoLibre in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,805.00.

MercadoLibre Stock Performance

MELI traded up $28.09 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $1,716.78. 485,251 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 406,914. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,501.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1,549.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.45. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 1-year low of $1,063.02 and a 1-year high of $1,825.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported $6.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.64 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $4.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.84 billion. MercadoLibre had a net margin of 7.17% and a return on equity of 42.04%. The business’s revenue was up 36.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.97 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that MercadoLibre, Inc. will post 34.46 earnings per share for the current year.

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.