Groupe la Francaise Sells 3,045 Shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. $MELI

Groupe la Francaise lowered its stake in shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 16.3% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,583 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,045 shares during the quarter. Groupe la Francaise’s holdings in MercadoLibre were worth $32,693,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Banco Santander S.A. lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 221.9% during the first quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 2,746 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,357,000 after acquiring an additional 1,893 shares in the last quarter. Prospect Financial Services LLC lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 41.7% during the first quarter. Prospect Financial Services LLC now owns 340 shares of the company’s stock worth $663,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Investment Management LLC bought a new position in MercadoLibre during the first quarter worth about $203,000. JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 43.6% during the fourth quarter. JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd now owns 3,249 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,525,000 after acquiring an additional 987 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avant Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in MercadoLibre during the fourth quarter worth about $316,000. Institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup reduced their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,900.00 to $2,850.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 18th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of MercadoLibre in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $2,800.00 price target on shares of MercadoLibre in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Wedbush set a $2,700.00 price target on MercadoLibre and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $2,750.00 price target on shares of MercadoLibre in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MercadoLibre presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $2,817.22.

MercadoLibre Stock Performance

MELI opened at $2,430.62 on Friday. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 52-week low of $1,646.00 and a 52-week high of $2,645.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $123.23 billion, a PE ratio of 60.03, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.20. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $2,411.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $2,273.82.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The company reported $10.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $12.01 by ($1.70). The company had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.57 billion. MercadoLibre had a return on equity of 43.06% and a net margin of 8.52%.The business’s revenue was up 33.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $10.48 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MercadoLibre, Inc. will post 43.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MercadoLibre 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.