MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) Shares Down 6.8% – Time to Sell?

MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)’s stock price was down 6.8% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $1,896.00 and last traded at $1,906.17. Approximately 321,811 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 15% from the average daily volume of 380,206 shares. The stock had previously closed at $2,045.25.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MELI shares. Raymond James upgraded MercadoLibre from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $2,250.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on MercadoLibre from $2,500.00 to $2,450.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 11th. Citigroup decreased their price target on MercadoLibre from $2,480.00 to $2,450.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays upped their price target on MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Wedbush decreased their price target on MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $2,402.81.

MercadoLibre Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $101.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a 50-day moving average of $1,942.41 and a 200-day moving average of $1,969.92.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MercadoLibre

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in MercadoLibre in the third quarter worth $114,417,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in MercadoLibre by 20.9% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 59,430 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,948,000 after buying an additional 10,272 shares during the period. KBC Group NV increased its position in MercadoLibre by 205.5% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 26,279 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,923,000 after buying an additional 17,677 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in MercadoLibre by 37.8% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 157,688 shares of the company’s stock worth $271,897,000 after buying an additional 43,215 shares during the period. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its position in MercadoLibre by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 1,369 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,328,000 after buying an additional 143 shares during the period. 87.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MercadoLibre Company 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.