Balboa Wealth Partners Increases Stock Holdings in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)

Balboa Wealth Partners raised its stake in shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 38.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 468 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners’ holdings in MercadoLibre were worth $796,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in shares of MercadoLibre during the third quarter valued at about $114,417,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 20.9% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 59,430 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,948,000 after acquiring an additional 10,272 shares during the period. KBC Group NV raised its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 205.5% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 26,279 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,923,000 after acquiring an additional 17,677 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 37.8% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 157,688 shares of the company’s stock worth $271,897,000 after acquiring an additional 43,215 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 1,369 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,328,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. 87.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MELI has been the topic of several recent research reports. Susquehanna increased their price objective on MercadoLibre from $2,350.00 to $2,760.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,150.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,500.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Wedbush decreased their target price on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,400.00 to $2,750.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $2,402.81.

MercadoLibre Stock Performance

Shares of MELI opened at $2,004.83 on Thursday. 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 stock has a market cap of $101.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.18, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.64. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $1,958.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1,969.52.

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