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. Based on an average daily volume of 406,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.9 days. Currently, 1.6% of the company’s stock are short sold.

MercadoLibre Price Performance

Shares of MELI stock traded up $63.14 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $2,065.94. The stock had a trading volume of 348,981 shares, compared to its average volume of 363,525. MercadoLibre has a one year low of $1,324.99 and a one year high of $2,374.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $1,977.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $1,969.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $104.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.80, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.64.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $12.61 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. Equities analysts forecast that MercadoLibre will post 43.96 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MELI. Barclays raised their price objective on MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,150.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on MercadoLibre from $1,950.00 to $2,300.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,400.00 to $2,750.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,350.00 to $2,760.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $2,402.81.

Institutional Trading of MercadoLibre

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mount Lucas Management LP increased its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mount Lucas Management LP now owns 143 shares of the company’s stock valued at $293,000 after acquiring an additional 5 shares during the period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in MercadoLibre by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 203 shares of the company’s stock valued at $346,000 after buying an additional 5 shares in the last quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. lifted its stake in MercadoLibre by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 1,634 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,779,000 after buying an additional 5 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co lifted its stake in MercadoLibre by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 999 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,699,000 after purchasing an additional 5 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Formidable Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in MercadoLibre by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Formidable Asset Management LLC now owns 160 shares of the company’s stock worth $272,000 after purchasing an additional 5 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

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.