MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) Short Interest Up 26.8% in June

MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 692,000 shares, a growth of 26.8% from the May 31st total of 545,800 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 354,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days. Currently, 1.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MercadoLibre

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX lifted its position in MercadoLibre by 4.0% in the first quarter. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX now owns 3,952 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,989,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in MercadoLibre by 31.7% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 54 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 13 shares in the last quarter. Spear Holdings RSC Ltd bought a new position in shares of MercadoLibre during the first quarter valued at $29,030,000. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of MercadoLibre by 107.3% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 1,988 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,006,000 after purchasing an additional 1,029 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 290.7% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 5,771 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,726,000 after purchasing an additional 4,294 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.62% of the company’s stock.

MercadoLibre Stock Performance

Shares of MercadoLibre stock traded down $11.55 on Tuesday, reaching $1,586.05. The stock had a trading volume of 23,754 shares, compared to its average volume of 373,969. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.27. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $1,616.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $1,607.24. The stock has a market cap of $80.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 70.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.60. MercadoLibre has a fifty-two week low of $1,063.02 and a fifty-two week high of $1,825.00.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported $6.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.64 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $4.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.84 billion. MercadoLibre had a return on equity of 39.46% and a net margin of 7.17%. The firm’s revenue was up 36.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.97 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that MercadoLibre will post 33.81 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on MELI shares. DZ Bank raised shares of MercadoLibre from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $1,685.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group raised MercadoLibre from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $1,400.00 to $2,100.00 in a research note on Monday, May 20th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on MercadoLibre from $1,900.00 to $1,800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $1,800.00 target price on shares of MercadoLibre in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of MercadoLibre from $1,800.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MercadoLibre currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,881.92.

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.