Sit Investment Associates Inc. Increases Holdings in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)

Sit Investment Associates Inc. raised its stake in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 650.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 225 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 195 shares during the quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc.’s holdings in MercadoLibre were worth $383,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in MercadoLibre during the third quarter worth about $114,417,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 20.9% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 59,430 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,948,000 after buying an additional 10,272 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 37.8% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 157,688 shares of the company’s stock valued at $271,897,000 after acquiring an additional 43,215 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew 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 acquiring an additional 143 shares during the period. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd increased its stake in MercadoLibre by 40.0% during the third quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 2,728 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,598,000 after acquiring an additional 780 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on MELI shares. New Street Research raised MercadoLibre from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $2,000.00 to $2,300.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,500.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,400.00 to $2,750.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Wedbush dropped their target price on shares of 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $2,402.81.

MercadoLibre Stock Down 5.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MELI opened at $1,841.29 on Monday. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $1,324.99 and a fifty-two week high of $2,374.54. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $2,036.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $1,966.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The stock has a market cap of $93.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.62.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $12.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.21 by $2.40. The business had revenue of $6.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.94 billion. MercadoLibre had a net margin of 9.20% and a return on equity of 51.89%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that MercadoLibre, Inc. will post 43.96 earnings per share 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.