Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC Decreases Position in MercadoLibre, Inc. $MELI

Key Points

• Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC has reduced its stake in MercadoLibre, Inc. by 19.4%, now holding around 50,296 shares valued at approximately $98 million.
• Several other institutional investors have increased their positions in MercadoLibre, with Assenagon Asset Management raising its stake by 170.9%, now owning 274,960 shares worth over $536 million.
• Analysts maintain a Moderate Buy consensus rating for MercadoLibre, with target prices ranging from $2,700 to $2,875 following recent quarterly earnings results that exhibited strong revenue growth.

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI - Free Report) by 19.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 50,296 shares of the company's stock after selling 12,072 shares during the quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC owned about 0.10% of MercadoLibre worth $98,121,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MELI. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 170.9% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 274,960 shares of the company's stock valued at $536,411,000 after acquiring an additional 173,449 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 22.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 570,967 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,113,881,000 after acquiring an additional 104,554 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 23.5% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 461,875 shares of the company's stock valued at $901,058,000 after acquiring an additional 87,912 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MercadoLibre in the first quarter valued at $143,367,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of MercadoLibre by 18.7% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 450,444 shares of the company's stock valued at $878,757,000 after acquiring an additional 70,834 shares in the last quarter. 87.62% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on MercadoLibre from $2,600.00 to $2,700.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $2,875.00 target price on shares of MercadoLibre in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Raymond James Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating and set a $2,750.00 target price on shares of MercadoLibre in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Citigroup reduced their target price on MercadoLibre from $2,900.00 to $2,850.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of MercadoLibre in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $2,817.22.

MercadoLibre Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MELI opened at $2,430.62 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $123.23 billion, a PE ratio of 60.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The business has a 50-day moving average of $2,411.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $2,275.89. MercadoLibre, Inc. has a 12 month low of $1,646.00 and a 12 month high of $2,645.22.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The company reported $10.31 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $12.01 by ($1.70). The firm had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.57 billion. MercadoLibre had a return on equity of 43.06% and a net margin of 8.52%.The business's revenue was up 33.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $10.48 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that MercadoLibre, Inc. will post 43.96 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.

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