Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC Buys 987 Shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC boosted its stake in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 25.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,799 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 987 shares during the period. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC’s holdings in MercadoLibre were worth $8,160,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in shares of MercadoLibre in the third quarter valued at about $114,417,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 59,430 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,948,000 after purchasing an additional 10,272 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 37.8% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 157,688 shares of the company’s stock worth $271,897,000 after purchasing an additional 43,215 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 1,369 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,328,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd raised its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 40.0% in the third quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 2,728 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,598,000 after buying an additional 780 shares in the last quarter. 87.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on MELI shares. Bank of America increased their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,500.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $1,950.00 to $2,300.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. New Street Research raised shares of MercadoLibre from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $2,000.00 to $2,300.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Raymond James raised shares of MercadoLibre from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $2,250.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $2,402.81.

MercadoLibre Stock Performance

Shares of MELI opened at $2,067.57 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $1,990.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $1,970.70. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 12 month low of $1,324.99 and a 12 month high of $2,374.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $104.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.64.

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