MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 509,700 shares, a drop of 24.5% from the September 15th total of 674,900 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 313,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.6 days. Approximately 1.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MELI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MercadoLibre from $2,175.00 to $2,500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Citigroup boosted their price target on MercadoLibre from $2,000.00 to $2,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $2,530.00 price target on shares of MercadoLibre in a report on Monday, October 7th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of MercadoLibre from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Raymond James initiated coverage on shares of MercadoLibre in a research report on Friday, September 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $2,350.00 target price for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $2,283.00.

Institutional Trading of MercadoLibre

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MELI. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 352.8% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 94,123 shares of the company’s stock valued at $193,137,000 after buying an additional 73,336 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. grew its stake in MercadoLibre by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 27 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 7 shares in the last quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC acquired a new position in shares of MercadoLibre in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,573,000. Sapient Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 23.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sapient Capital LLC now owns 21,360 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,830,000 after purchasing an additional 4,061 shares during the period. Finally, MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH boosted its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 211.8% during the third quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock worth $435,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the period. 87.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MercadoLibre Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of MercadoLibre stock traded down $49.96 on Tuesday, reaching $2,030.00. 200,324 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 351,287. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. MercadoLibre has a fifty-two week low of $1,141.04 and a fifty-two week high of $2,161.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $102.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 92.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.61. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $2,018.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $1,750.46.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $10.48 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.53 by $1.95. MercadoLibre had a net margin of 8.03% and a return on equity of 43.52%. The company had revenue of $5.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.64 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $5.16 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 41.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that MercadoLibre will post 37.55 EPS 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.