MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Monday. The stock had previously closed at $1,810.15, but opened at $1,578.25. MercadoLibre shares last traded at $1,603.61, with a volume of 532,749 shares changing hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MELI. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price objective on MercadoLibre from $2,300.00 to $2,200.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of MercadoLibre to $2,400.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $1,900.00 to $2,150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of MercadoLibre in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,150.00 to $2,100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 13th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $2,251.88.

MercadoLibre Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $82.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.31, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $1,862.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1,789.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.12.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $9.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.65 by $0.54. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.79 billion. MercadoLibre had a return on equity of 26.54% and a net margin of 5.30%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 49.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $10.31 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that MercadoLibre, Inc. will post 38.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MercadoLibre

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MELI. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in MercadoLibre during the 2nd quarter worth $2,246,015,000. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new stake in shares of MercadoLibre in the second quarter valued at about $917,123,000. Linonia Partnership LP boosted its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 325.1% in the second quarter. Linonia Partnership LP now owns 553,788 shares of the company’s stock valued at $939,994,000 after acquiring an additional 423,527 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 114.2% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 444,603 shares of the company’s stock valued at $768,728,000 after acquiring an additional 237,008 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in shares of MercadoLibre in the second quarter valued at about $291,146,000. 87.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About MercadoLibre

MercadoLibre, Inc is a technology company that operates an online commerce and financial services ecosystem across Latin America. Founded in 1999 by Marcos Galperin, the company initially developed an online marketplace and has expanded into a broad platform connecting buyers and sellers with businesses and consumers.

Its commerce operations include the MercadoLibre marketplace, where users can purchase and sell products across numerous categories. The company also offers supporting services such as Mercado Envíos for shipping and logistics, Mercado Ads for digital advertising, and tools for merchants to manage their online businesses.

MercadoLibre’s financial technology business is centered on Mercado Pago, which provides digital payment processing, online checkout, money transfer and account services.