Whittier Trust Co. Boosts Holdings in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)

Whittier Trust Co. increased its stake in shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 23.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,607 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 304 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in MercadoLibre were worth $2,733,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC now owns 390 shares of the company’s stock worth $663,000 after purchasing an additional 9 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,476 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,012,000 after purchasing an additional 391 shares in the last quarter. GS Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 183.0% in the fourth quarter. GS Investments Inc. now owns 1,330 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,262,000 after purchasing an additional 860 shares in the last quarter. First National Bank of Hutchinson increased its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 54.7% in the fourth quarter. First National Bank of Hutchinson now owns 232 shares of the company’s stock worth $395,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal London Asset Management Ltd. increased its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 257,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $438,232,000 after purchasing an additional 21,063 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

MercadoLibre Trading Up 1.3 %

NASDAQ:MELI opened at $2,095.27 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $1,997.59 and a 200 day moving average of $1,970.94. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 52 week low of $1,324.99 and a 52 week high of $2,374.54. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $106.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.64.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last posted its quarterly 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. MercadoLibre had a net margin of 9.20% and a return on equity of 51.89%. The company had revenue of $6.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.94 billion. On average, research analysts predict that MercadoLibre, Inc. will post 43.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. New Street Research upgraded shares of MercadoLibre from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $2,000.00 to $2,300.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James upgraded shares of MercadoLibre from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $2,250.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Wedbush cut their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,200.00 to $2,100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,400.00 to $2,750.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Two equities research 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $2,402.81.

MercadoLibre Company Profile

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.