Arizona State Retirement System Grows Position in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)

Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 13,156 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 103 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in MercadoLibre were worth $22,371,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in MercadoLibre during the 3rd quarter valued at about $114,417,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 20.9% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 59,430 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,948,000 after buying an additional 10,272 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 205.5% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 26,279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,923,000 after buying an additional 17,677 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 37.8% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 157,688 shares of the company’s stock valued at $271,897,000 after buying an additional 43,215 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 40.0% during the 3rd 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. Institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MELI. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,350.00 to $2,760.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of MercadoLibre from $1,950.00 to $2,300.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Raymond James upgraded shares of MercadoLibre from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $2,250.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,480.00 to $2,450.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Wedbush reduced their price target on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MercadoLibre currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $2,402.81.

MercadoLibre Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of MercadoLibre stock opened at $2,112.77 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $107.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.04, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.62. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 52-week low of $1,324.99 and a 52-week high of $2,374.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $1,930.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $1,969.77.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $12.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.21 by $2.40. The company had revenue of $6.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.94 billion. MercadoLibre had a net margin of 9.20% and a return on equity of 51.89%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that MercadoLibre, Inc. will post 43.96 EPS for the current fiscal 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.