The Goldman Sachs Group Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) Stock

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) had its price target lifted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $2,400.00 to $2,750.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on MELI. Wedbush cut their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. New Street Research upgraded MercadoLibre from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $2,000.00 to $2,300.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. BTIG Research lowered their price target on MercadoLibre from $2,250.00 to $2,200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Raymond James upgraded MercadoLibre from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $2,250.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on MercadoLibre from $2,150.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $2,402.81.

MercadoLibre Stock Performance

Shares of MELI opened at $2,112.77 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $1,930.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $1,969.77. MercadoLibre has a 52-week low of $1,324.99 and a 52-week high of $2,374.54. The firm has a market cap of $107.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.04, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $12.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.21 by $2.40. MercadoLibre had a return on equity of 51.89% and a net margin of 9.20%. The company had revenue of $6.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.94 billion. Analysts forecast that MercadoLibre will post 43.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MercadoLibre

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in shares of MercadoLibre during the third quarter valued at $114,417,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 20.9% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 59,430 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,948,000 after purchasing an additional 10,272 shares during the period. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 205.5% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 26,279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,923,000 after purchasing an additional 17,677 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 37.8% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 157,688 shares of the company’s stock valued at $271,897,000 after purchasing an additional 43,215 shares during the period. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd increased its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 40.0% during the third quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 2,728 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,598,000 after purchasing an additional 780 shares during the period. 87.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About MercadoLibre

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.