Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. Acquires 20,315 Shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) by 2,392.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,164 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,315 shares during the period. MercadoLibre comprises 1.4% of Itau Unibanco Holding S.A.’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A.’s holdings in MercadoLibre were worth $34,008,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MELI. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in MercadoLibre by 4.8% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 34,840 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,256,000 after buying an additional 1,604 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of MercadoLibre by 20.3% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 27,642 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,794,000 after purchasing an additional 4,658 shares in the last quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd increased its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 33.4% in the first quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 4,960 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,499,000 after purchasing an additional 1,241 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC increased its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 143.7% in the second quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 580 shares of the company’s stock worth $955,000 after purchasing an additional 342 shares during the period. Finally, Sarasin & Partners LLP raised its stake in MercadoLibre by 168.5% in the second quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 45,407 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,622,000 after purchasing an additional 28,494 shares in the last quarter. 87.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on MELI shares. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,000.00 to $2,100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of MercadoLibre from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 10th. Dbs Bank upgraded MercadoLibre from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Citigroup raised their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,000.00 to $2,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on MercadoLibre from $2,150.00 to $2,400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $2,207.31.

MercadoLibre Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MELI opened at $2,103.75 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $106.65 billion, a PE ratio of 94.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.61. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 52 week low of $1,141.04 and a 52 week high of $2,157.64. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $1,899.17 and its 200-day moving average is $1,691.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.28.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $10.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.53 by $1.95. The company had revenue of $5.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.64 billion. MercadoLibre had a return on equity of 43.52% and a net margin of 8.03%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 41.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.16 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that MercadoLibre, Inc. will post 35.22 earnings per share for the current 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.