MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) Short Interest Up 20.9% in February

MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 761,500 shares, an increase of 20.9% from the February 13th total of 629,800 shares. Approximately 1.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 406,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Institutional Trading of MercadoLibre

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. 111 Capital purchased a new stake in MercadoLibre in the fourth quarter worth approximately $401,000. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC boosted its stake in MercadoLibre by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 8,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,850,000 after buying an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ purchased a new stake in MercadoLibre in the fourth quarter worth approximately $50,297,000. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co purchased a new stake in MercadoLibre in the fourth quarter worth approximately $5,101,000. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in MercadoLibre in the fourth quarter worth approximately $315,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MELI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,150.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Wedbush reduced their price target on shares of 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 shares of MercadoLibre from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $2,000.00 to $2,300.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,480.00 to $2,450.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $2,402.81.

MercadoLibre Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MELI traded down $103.66 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $2,002.80. The company had a trading volume of 436,033 shares, compared to its average volume of 363,622. The stock has a market cap of $101.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.64. MercadoLibre has a 52-week low of $1,324.99 and a 52-week 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. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $1,977.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $1,969.35.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $12.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.21 by $2.40. The firm had revenue of $6.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.94 billion. MercadoLibre had a return on equity of 51.89% and a net margin of 9.20%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MercadoLibre will post 43.96 EPS for the current fiscal 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.