Premier Fund Managers Ltd Cuts Stake in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)

Premier Fund Managers Ltd lowered its position in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,175 shares of the company’s stock after selling 126 shares during the quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd’s holdings in MercadoLibre were worth $12,359,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in MercadoLibre by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 404,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $830,190,000 after buying an additional 12,000 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 52.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 349,678 shares of the company’s stock worth $717,525,000 after purchasing an additional 120,922 shares in the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in MercadoLibre during the fourth quarter valued at $565,306,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its position in MercadoLibre by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 257,717 shares of the company’s stock valued at $438,232,000 after acquiring an additional 21,063 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 235,597 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,619,000 after acquiring an additional 3,710 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on MELI shares. New Street Research raised shares of MercadoLibre from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $2,000.00 to $2,300.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America upped their price objective on MercadoLibre from $2,500.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,150.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,400.00 to $2,750.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $2,402.81.

MercadoLibre Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MELI opened at $2,095.85 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $106.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $2,024.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1,974.34. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a twelve month low of $1,324.99 and a twelve month high of $2,374.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $12.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.21 by $2.40. The company had revenue of $6.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.94 billion. MercadoLibre had a net margin of 9.20% and a return on equity of 51.89%. As a group, research 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.