Valley National Advisers Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)

Valley National Advisers Inc. decreased its position in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 1.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 899 shares of the company’s stock after selling 15 shares during the quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc.’s holdings in MercadoLibre were worth $1,359,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Townsquare Capital LLC increased its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 0.9% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 1,549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,964,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. Vestor Capital LLC increased its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Vestor Capital LLC now owns 88 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,000 after buying an additional 8 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in MercadoLibre by 2.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 178,815 shares of the company’s stock worth $226,716,000 after acquiring an additional 4,065 shares in the last quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd boosted its stake in MercadoLibre by 33.4% during the first quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 4,960 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,499,000 after acquiring an additional 1,241 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in MercadoLibre by 112,333.8% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 146,164 shares of the company’s stock worth $229,703,000 after acquiring an additional 146,034 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on MELI. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $1,800.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $1,990.00 to $1,940.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of MercadoLibre from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $1,400.00 to $2,100.00 in a research note on Monday, May 20th. DZ Bank raised shares of MercadoLibre from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $1,685.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, New Street Research downgraded shares of MercadoLibre from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,881.92.

MercadoLibre Stock Performance

MercadoLibre stock traded down $5.04 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $1,591.44. 207,678 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 374,815. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.60. The business has a 50 day moving average of $1,625.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1,607.13. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 12 month low of $1,063.02 and a 12 month high of $1,825.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.25.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported $6.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.64 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $4.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.84 billion. MercadoLibre had a net margin of 7.17% and a return on equity of 39.46%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 36.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.97 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that MercadoLibre, Inc. will post 33.81 earnings per share for the current 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.