DnB Asset Management AS Buys 2,744 Shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)

DnB Asset Management AS raised its stake in shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 6.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 44,192 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,744 shares during the quarter. DnB Asset Management AS’s holdings in MercadoLibre were worth $75,146,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp increased its stake in MercadoLibre by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 404,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $830,190,000 after acquiring an additional 12,000 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 52.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 349,678 shares of the company’s stock valued at $717,525,000 after purchasing an additional 120,922 shares during the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of MercadoLibre during the 4th quarter valued at about $565,306,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in MercadoLibre by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 257,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $438,232,000 after buying an additional 21,063 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in MercadoLibre by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 235,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,619,000 after buying an additional 3,710 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. New Street Research upgraded shares of MercadoLibre from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $2,000.00 to $2,300.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays lifted their price objective on MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on MercadoLibre from $1,950.00 to $2,300.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Bank of America boosted their target price 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, Raymond James upgraded shares of MercadoLibre from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $2,250.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $2,402.81.

MercadoLibre Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of MercadoLibre stock opened at $2,095.85 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $2,024.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1,974.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $106.25 billion, a PE ratio of 55.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.64. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 52-week low of $1,324.99 and a 52-week 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $12.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.21 by $2.40. The business had revenue of $6.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.94 billion. MercadoLibre had a return on equity of 51.89% and a net margin of 9.20%. On average, analysts anticipate 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.