MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) Short Interest Up 20.9% in February

MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 761,500 shares, a growth of 20.9% from the February 13th total of 629,800 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 406,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days.

MercadoLibre Trading Up 3.2 %

MercadoLibre stock traded up $63.14 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $2,065.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 348,981 shares, compared to its average volume of 363,525. The stock has a market capitalization of $104.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.64. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $1,977.75 and its 200 day moving average is $1,969.35. MercadoLibre has a 1-year low of $1,324.99 and a 1-year high of $2,374.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.25.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MELI. Mount Lucas Management LP lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mount Lucas Management LP now owns 143 shares of the company’s stock worth $293,000 after buying an additional 5 shares during the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 203 shares of the company’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 5 shares during the last quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 1,634 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,779,000 after buying an additional 5 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 999 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,699,000 after buying an additional 5 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Formidable Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Formidable Asset Management LLC now owns 160 shares of the company’s stock worth $272,000 after buying an additional 5 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MELI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wedbush lowered their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,400.00 to $2,750.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on MercadoLibre from $2,150.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Bank of America lifted their price objective on MercadoLibre from $2,500.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, New Street Research upgraded MercadoLibre from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $2,000.00 to $2,300.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $2,402.81.

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.