MercadoLibre (MELI) Competitors

Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) and MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, valuation, earnings, community ranking and dividends.

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in BABA or MELI?

13.5% of Alibaba Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.6% of MercadoLibre shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.5% of Alibaba Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of MercadoLibre shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts prefer BABA or MELI?

Alibaba Group currently has a consensus price target of $150.36, suggesting a potential upside of 25.91%. MercadoLibre has a consensus price target of $2,464.67, suggesting a potential upside of 5.74%. Given Alibaba Group's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Alibaba Group is more favorable than MercadoLibre.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alibaba Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	13 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.13
MercadoLibre	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	13 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.06

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer BABA or MELI?

Alibaba Group received 2029 more outperform votes than MercadoLibre when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 84.39% of users gave Alibaba Group an outperform vote while only 66.12% of users gave MercadoLibre an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Alibaba Group	Outperform Votes 2714 84.39%	Underperform Votes 502 15.61%
MercadoLibre	Outperform Votes 685 66.12%	Underperform Votes 351 33.88%

Which has more risk & volatility, BABA or MELI?

Alibaba Group has a beta of 0.24, suggesting that its stock price is 76% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MercadoLibre has a beta of 1.62, suggesting that its stock price is 62% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is BABA or MELI more profitable?

Alibaba Group has a net margin of 12.29% compared to MercadoLibre's net margin of 9.20%. MercadoLibre's return on equity of 51.89% beat Alibaba Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alibaba Group	12.29%	12.89%	7.69%
MercadoLibre	9.20%	51.89%	9.29%

Is BABA or MELI a better dividend stock?

Alibaba Group pays an annual dividend of $0.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. MercadoLibre pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.0%. Alibaba Group pays out 14.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MercadoLibre pays out 1.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Does the media prefer BABA or MELI?

In the previous week, Alibaba Group had 14 more articles in the media than MercadoLibre. MarketBeat recorded 58 mentions for Alibaba Group and 44 mentions for MercadoLibre. MercadoLibre's average media sentiment score of 1.10 beat Alibaba Group's score of 0.66 indicating that MercadoLibre is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Alibaba Group	27 Very Positive mention(s)	15 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	10 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
MercadoLibre	34 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, BABA or MELI?

Alibaba Group has higher revenue and earnings than MercadoLibre. Alibaba Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MercadoLibre, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alibaba Group	$981.77B	0.29	$11.08B	$6.92	17.26
MercadoLibre	$20.78B	5.69	$987M	$37.70	61.83

Summary

Alibaba Group beats MercadoLibre on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.