Ascent Group LLC Acquires New Holdings in MercadoLibre, Inc. $MELI

Ascent Group LLC bought a new stake in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 78 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in MELI. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 170.9% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 274,960 shares of the company’s stock valued at $536,411,000 after purchasing an additional 173,449 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in MercadoLibre by 22.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 570,967 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,113,881,000 after buying an additional 104,554 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in MercadoLibre by 21.2% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 550,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,073,823,000 after buying an additional 96,283 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in MercadoLibre by 23.5% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 461,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $901,058,000 after buying an additional 87,912 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in MercadoLibre during the first quarter valued at about $143,367,000. Institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MELI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $3,100.00 to $3,000.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Daiwa Capital Markets started coverage on shares of MercadoLibre in a research note on Friday, August 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $3,000.00 price objective for the company. Wedbush set a $2,700.00 price target on shares of MercadoLibre and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $2,875.00 price target on shares of MercadoLibre in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Scotiabank started coverage on shares of MercadoLibre in a research report on Monday, July 28th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $3,500.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $2,822.78.

MercadoLibre Stock Down 0.4%

MELI opened at $2,179.89 on Thursday. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $1,646.00 and a fifty-two week high of $2,645.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $2,370.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2,343.65. The company has a market capitalization of $110.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.46.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The company reported $10.31 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $12.01 by ($1.70). MercadoLibre had a net margin of 8.52% and a return on equity of 43.06%. The firm had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $10.48 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that MercadoLibre, Inc. will post 43.96 EPS for the current year.

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.