Raymond James Financial Inc. Invests $70.13 Million in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 41,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $70,131,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in MercadoLibre by 169,952.3% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 181,956 shares of the company’s stock valued at $309,405,000 after purchasing an additional 181,849 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in MercadoLibre by 18.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 878,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,803,665,000 after acquiring an additional 137,564 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in MercadoLibre by 52.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 349,678 shares of the company’s stock valued at $717,525,000 after acquiring an additional 120,922 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its position in MercadoLibre by 352.8% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 94,123 shares of the company’s stock valued at $193,137,000 after acquiring an additional 73,336 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in MercadoLibre by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,873,919 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,845,207,000 after acquiring an additional 70,154 shares in the last quarter. 87.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MercadoLibre Stock Down 1.8 %

MercadoLibre stock opened at $2,009.34 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,942.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1,969.65. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $1,324.99 and a fifty-two week high of $2,374.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $101.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.30, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MELI has been the subject of several research reports. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,350.00 to $2,760.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of MercadoLibre from $1,950.00 to $2,300.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Wedbush lowered their price target 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, Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of MercadoLibre from $2,150.00 to $3,000.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Two 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $2,402.81.

MercadoLibre 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.