Van ECK Associates Corp Buys 93,856 Shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. $MELI

Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 2,855.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 97,143 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 93,856 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in MercadoLibre were worth $164,890,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bison Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of MercadoLibre during the fourth quarter valued at about $206,000. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in MercadoLibre by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 760 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,483,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth grew its position in MercadoLibre by 42.0% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 602 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,176,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in MercadoLibre in the 2nd quarter valued at about $261,000. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 21.4% during the 2nd quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 170 shares of the company’s stock worth $444,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on MELI shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of MercadoLibre in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Raymond James Financial set a $2,000.00 price target on MercadoLibre in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Benchmark dropped their price target on MercadoLibre from $2,780.00 to $2,380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on MercadoLibre from $2,600.00 to $2,450.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their target price on MercadoLibre from $3,500.00 to $2,800.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $2,272.00.

MercadoLibre Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MELI opened at $1,966.25 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,824.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1,772.36. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 1-year low of $1,495.00 and a 1-year high of $2,548.50. The firm has a market cap of $99.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $9.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.65 by $0.54. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.79 billion. MercadoLibre had a return on equity of 26.54% and a net margin of 5.30%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $10.31 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that MercadoLibre, Inc. will post 39.11 earnings per share for the current year.

About MercadoLibre

MercadoLibre, Inc operates an integrated e-commerce and fintech ecosystem serving consumers and businesses across Latin America. The company provides an online marketplace that connects buyers and sellers for a wide range of goods and services, supported by tools for merchants, advertising, and classifieds. Over time MercadoLibre has expanded beyond its marketplace roots into complementary areas that support digital commerce end to end.

Key offerings include its marketplace platform and a suite of logistics and payment services.