Posts for Ticker ‘MELI’

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ARG, T, GOOG, HOV, MELI, SSL, STO, TSM, TRI, WSM)

These are the top ten analyst calls for research upgrades, downgrades, and initiations which we have seen from Wall Street early this Monday morning:
Airgas (ARG) Started as Buy at Piper Jaffray.
AT&T (T) Removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs, but maintained Buy rating with 32% upside.
Google (GOOG) Cut to Hold from Buy at Benchmark.
Hovnanian (HOV) Cut to Underperform at Wachovia.
MercadoLibre (MELI) Raised to Positive at Susquehanna.
Sassol (SSL) Started as Neutral at UBS.
StatoilHydro (STO) Cut to Sell from Neutral at UBS.
Taiwan Semi (TSM) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Thomson Reuters (TRI) Raised to Outperform at Scotia.
Williams-Sonoma (WSM) Raised to Buy at Piper Jaffray.

JON C. OGG
June 8, 2009

Posted on: June 8, 2009 – 6:53 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

MercadoLibre Trying To Catch Up (MELI)

Mercadolibre_logoMercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ: MELI) may have fallen a long ways from back when Jim Cramer called this one his favorite tech calls from Latin America, but the company is up in after-hours trading and took back most of today’s losses after its earnings.

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Posted on: November 11, 2008 – 4:47 pm in Earnings, Emerging Markets, Internet,

AmTech’s Top Fundamental Technology Stocks (CNQR, MELI, MFE, MPWR, QCOM, RIMM, VRSN)

Amtech_logo_2American Technology Research has issued a research report going into earnings season called "Our Best Dozen Fundamental Picks."  AmTech believes investors already expect a disaster but that the current business climate isn’t as bad as some argue.  While the firm believes that many companies will guide expectations lower or will be very cautious, some will continue to outperform their peers. We have broken out the technology companies in an individual piece today and some very brief commentary from AmTech is outlined below.

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Posted on: October 13, 2008 – 10:11 am in Analyst Calls, Internet, Technology Companies, , , , , , ,

Despite Share Sale Withdrawal, Mercadolibre Takes Heat (MELI)

Mercadolibre, Inc. (NASDAQ: MELI) is in a unique spot as it serves an online payment and e-commerce gateway and platform throughout much of Latin America.  The company’s stock is also down close to 50% from the last 90+ days.

Last night, we saw that Mercadolibre (NASDAQ: MELI) had withdrawn its shelf registration statement that would have allowed insiders and the company to sell stock.  On this filing we asked if traders should buy as the company sells.  The reason for the shelf withdrawal was "…on the grounds that the withdrawal of the Registration Statement is in the best interests of the Company’s stockholders and consistent with the public interest and the protection of investors…"

We frequently discuss restructurings, activist investor trends, IPO’s, back door plays into IPO’s, SPAC’s, spin-offs, and more on our open email distribution list.

Interestingly enough, shares are down over 1% today at $39.25 on a day that the U.S. markets are soaring higher.  You’d think this might take off some "added float pressure" normally seen, but the market isn’t treating it that way right now.  This was also one of Jim Cramer’s Latin American internet picks, although at significantly higher prices that went even higher before a monstrous pullback.

Jon C. Ogg
April 1, 2008

Jon Ogg produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: April 1, 2008 – 10:31 am in ADR, Internet, Secondary Offering,

Mercadolibre, An Earnings Jumping Bean (MELI)

MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ: MELI) posted quarterly revenue increased 73.9% to $26.9 million, with an operating income margin increase to 27.1%. It also reported income from operations of $7.3 million and a net income increase of 188% to $5.3 million.  First Call had estimates pegged at $26.88 million for revenues.

New confirmed registered users for the three-month period ended December 31, 2007 were 1.6 million. Total confirmed registered users increased to 24.9 million as of December 31, 2007, an increase of 37.1% over December 31, 2006.  Its gross merchandise volume was $461.0 million in Q4-2007, up 40.2% from Q4-2006. Successful items sold through MercadoLibre totaled 4.8 million during Q4-2007, up 17.9% from Q4-2006. Total payment volume was $56.8 million, up 86.8% over Q4-2006.

Some comments from Marcos Galperin, President & CEO were, "….we delivered revenue growth of 73.9% and operating income margins of 27.1%. Growth rates were strong across all of our business units as well as all of our key geographies. Clearly, we are continuing to benefit from the positive growth trends influencing internet,
broadband and PC penetration rates in Latin America, and we believe this course will persist for many years to come…. we intend to leverage our leadership position and the industry dynamics in Latin America to further drive top-line growth and sustain margins throughout the year…"

As of the close, its market cap was $1.64 Billion, so at $85.1 million in 2007 revenues this one trades at 19-times trailing revenues; and with analyst targets at $132.3 million for 2008, this trades at 12-times revenues.  Mercadolibre was featured by Jim Cramer as a winner, although the shares are far lower after running up initially from his "look at it now" point.  Shares closed up 3.5% at $37.12, and the initial response is slightly higher by less than 1% in after-hours trading.  Its 52-week trading range is $21.00 to $81.17.

Jon C. Ogg
March 5, 2008

Posted on: March 5, 2008 – 4:24 pm in Earnings, Internet, ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (AU, APOL, CLF, DRI, ETR, EXC, EXPD, F, MELI, OSIP, STX, WDC)

These are not all of the analyst calls out there affecting shares, but these are the top 10 analyst we are focusing on this Monday morning:

  • Anglogold (NYSE: AU) Raised to Buy at UBS.
  • Apollo Group (NASDAQ: APOL) cut to Sell at Banc of America.
  • Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE: CLF) started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
  • Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) raised to Outperform at Bear Stearns.
  • Entergy (NYSE: ETR) & Excelon (NYSE: EXC) raised to Buy at Jefferies.
  • Expeditors International (NASDAQ: EXPD) Raised to Buy at UBS.
  • Ford Motors (NYSE: F) cut to Sell at Citigroup.
  • MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI) raised to Outperform at RBC Capital.
  • OSI Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: OSIP) raised to Outperform at Wachovia.
  • Seagate Tech (NYSE: STX) raised to Overweight at JP Morgan; Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) downgraded to Underweight at JP Morgan.

Jon C. Ogg
March 3, 2008

Posted on: March 3, 2008 – 7:55 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Cramer’s Grooming Tip: Get A Brazilian (PBR, RIO, AMX, GFA, MELI, GOL, EWZ)

This week on MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer had some international advice.  He wants portfolios to have Brazilians, but not the waxing type.  He has an oil play, a metals and mining play, a Latin American telecom play, and even a housing play.  Below are his picks and some of the stats for the stocks, and we followed up with some other recent Cramer picks for Brazil or Latin America and even threw in the more diversified ETF’s:

  • Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR), or PetroBras, is Brazil’s integrated oil play that has quietly become one of the larger oil stocks with a $244 Billion market cap. At $111+, it spent much of this last week roughly 10% off of highs, and its 52-week trading range is $41.38 to $119.16.  This is also one of Ken Heebner’s long-term favorites in the sector.
  • Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (NYSE: RIO) is a diversified metals and mining company that operates globally, and its market cap is $146.6 Billion as of now.  At $30.35, its is nestled between its 52-week trading range of $15.57 to $38.32. 
  • Another of his picks for Brazil was actually the Mexico-based America Movil S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE: AMX) as the wireless and fixed telecom play for all of Latin America.  This is a Carlos Slim entity, and its market cap is now $102 Billion.  This had roughly 150 million subscribers throughout Latin America.  Not bad for a company whose origins go all the way back to 2000, wait only 8-years?  On a split-adjusted basis this is still up 10-fold since coming public in February 2001.
  • The last Cramer pick in Brazil was homebuilder Gafisa S.A. (NYSE: GFA).  At $30.85 this market cap is only about $4 Billion, small for picks this week, and shares are nestled in a $20.67 to $42.74 range of the last year.  This one has barely been public for a year, and we had previously noted how this was Sam Zell’s investment down in Brazil. Apparently Brazil’s housing market growth is not yet having the same issues of over-inflated prices with poor overextended borrowers like in the U.S.  Hopefully they know to look north and now see what problems to avoid.

Another recent Cramer pick on Latin America was the individual and corporate e-commerce platform provider MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI), although this one was battered and deep fried in recent weeks and we recently questioned whether or not you should buy the stock since it tapped the secondary markets this soon.  It is based in Argentina, but also has ‘clientes’ in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America.  In the past Cramer also noted GOL as the airline of choice for Brazil.

We know that Cramer would rather have a diversified portfolio of roughly five large stocks at any time rather than mutual funds, but there are many diversified ways to play the Brazilian stock market without having to choose one of the individual stocks.  If investors want to diversify via ETF’s, there is always the iShares MSCI Brazil Index (NYSE: EWZ).  It closed at $75.11 Friday and its 52-week trading range is $39.80 to $87.67.

A way to partially play Brazil with more diversification is also the SPDR S&P BRIC 40 (AMEX: BIK), although as a "BRIC" play you have to understand that this is more geographically diversified as Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The iShares also has a similar one called the iShares MSCI BRIC Index (NYSE: BKF), and Claymore has the Claymore/BNY BRIC (AMEX: EEB).

Jon C. Ogg
February 9, 2008

Posted on: February 9, 2008 – 9:24 am in ADR, Cramer, ETF, International Markets, , , , , , ,

If MercadoLibre Is Already Selling Stock, Should You Buy? (MELI)

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI) filed to sell up to $292,140,000 in common stock after the close of trading on Friday via JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch.  The problem isn’t that this will just be dilutive to existing shareholders, it is that insiders are also selling shares.  So there is a fear that this might be a "cashing-out" by management.

Some of the proceeds will be for the company: "We intend to use the net proceeds of this offering to fund future selective acquisitions of or investments in businesses, technologies or products that are complementary to our business and for general corporate purposes."

This one was recently given the green light by Jim Cramer and it rallied sharply before this last pullback.   The company provides a platform for buyers and sellers to conduct business in an online trading environment that fosters the development of a large and growing e-commerce platform in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Panama.

Shares have only been public for less than half of a year and this was at $80 just last month.  MercadoLibre’s stock closed at $54.06 on Friday.  In pre-market trading today, shares are trading down over 12% at $46.25 and the 52-week trading range is $21.00 to $81.17.  If the company is already tapping the financial markets less than 6-months of coming public, should new holders be rushing to buy when the company and insider or institutional-backer shareholders are selling?

Jon C. Ogg
January 28, 2008

Posted on: January 28, 2008 – 9:25 am in ADR, Internet, Secondary Offering,

Backward & Forward, Cramer In 2007 To 2008

2007 was one volatile year and for now it appears that will be the norm for at least the start of 2008.  Everyone’s favorite market pundit or least liked pundit is obviously Jim Cramer.  If you love Cramer or can’t stand him it really doesn’t matter.  He signed a new multi-year deal with CNBC recently.  Here are some of his major calls this year that will still be referred to in 2008:

Here were Cramer’s TOP 9 STOCKS FOR 2007, with a call broken down for each one.  Borat would say HI FIVE on some and NOT SO NICE on others, as would be expected.  Cramer’s 14,582 year-end DJIA target…..Friday’s close was 13,365.87……although we did hit 14,279.96 on OCT11, 2007.  Cramer also gave a batch of price targets on most of theDJIA components:

Cramer’s Stock Picks FOR 5-YEARS OUT:

SOME LISTS: His list of recession proof stocks compared to ours.  We are updating our
Defensive Stocks For The First Half Of 2008" currently.  Cramer gave a huge list of companies he expects to benefit from the alternative energy traders (SGR, FWLT, BWA, OMG, FSLR, FTEK, WFR, TTEK, ZOLT, BP, SPWR, CY, CPST, ITRI)… Jim Cramer pondered which US companies China would want to acquire, about 3 months before sovereign funds started buying into US companies.  Cramer’s mortgage winners and losers…… Here were his MAJOR BULL MARKET STOCK PICKS(MHS, CVS, AGN, CELG, GENZ, CEPH, RIG, HAL, EMR, CAT, CMI, UTX, KO,PEP, CL, GS, SKS, VFC, UNP, CSX, BA), some of which are DJIAcomponents.  Cramer produced a "MUST OWN" list of stocks, many of whichare up significantly and some are down (WHR, BDK, ATI, BGC, HON, ASD, JCI, MDR, FWLT, CAT, TEX, DE, QCOM)

Cramer spent lots of time on International stocks that most US investors might not cover on their own.  He made a big call on Mercadolibre (MELI) (also BIDU, GOOG) with some emphasis on buying immediately, right before it made a huge run up.  Cramer’s Hidden Video Game Investment Perfect World (PWRD, ATVI, ERTS, VIA) was one he said could run more than 50% for 2008.  Cramer made 5 TOP CHINESE PICKS (CEO, CHL, SSW, FMCN, BIDU, GMR).  We’ll see in 2008 if any of his Canadian OIL TRUSTS get acquired in 2008 (BTE, CNE, PGH, PVX, PWE, AAV, GDI).  Cramer also went over his top picks from Europe for American investors (TOT, SI, ABB, PHG, BF)

ON TECHNOLOGY:  Cramer’s NEW HORSEMEN OF TECH…. will the list change in 2008???  Did Cramer Say $1,000.00 on Google, Or Is It $600.00? That was in May 2007.  Cramer Gave Monster Price targets to Baidu.com (BIDU, GOOG).. will these targets change in 2008? Cramer was very positive on all the GPS stocks,although we’d expect that Cramer will change his tune in 2008 now thatthe holiday madness is behind us (GRMN, UA, CROX, NVT, TRMB, SIRF).

Would it be fair not to include the Barron’s attack on Cramer from summer for those of you that criticize his every word?

ON WARREN BUFFETT…. Cramer noted that BROOKFIELD ASSET MANAGEMENT in Canada may be the next Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK/A) NYSE: BAM). Cramer reviewed 10 Warren Buffett stocks for analysis and then reviewed 10 More Warren Buffett stocks:

Will his buyout of ALCOA (AA) prediction come true in 2008??? Cramer gave a list of stocks that had bought back so much stock that they might be taking themselves private.

Join our free email distribution list for other Cramer calls or for updates we send out regarding IPO’s, spin-offs, restructuring, reorganization, activist investors and more.

Happy New Years from the 247WallSt.com team!

Jon C. Ogg
December 31, 2007

Posted on: December 31, 2007 – 8:01 am in Cramer, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

IPO’s That More Than Doubled in 2007 (JASO, YGE, MELI, VMW, LULU, MASI, RCH, APEI, ATHN, DM)

247WallSt.com wanted to bring a list of the best and worst in IPO’s for 2007.  We already gave a list of the large money losing IPO leaders of 2007 and this list should show you which of the recent IPO’s that are up more than 100% so far since the IPO pricing. 

  • JA Solar Holdings (NASDAQ:JASO) Feb. 6 at $15.00; recently $75.43 or +402%.
  • Yingli Green Energy Holding (NYSE:YGE) June 7 at $11.00; recently $40.09 or +264.4%.   
  • Mercadolibre Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) Aug. 9 at $18.00; recently $60.40 or +235.5%.
  • VMware (NYSE:VMW) Aug. at $29; recently $88.71 or +202%.
  • Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) July 26 at $18.00; recently $49.16 or +173.1%.   
  • Masimo Corp. (NASDAQ:MASI) Aug. 7 at $17.00; recently $41.37 or +143.3%.   
  • China Architectural (NYSE: RCH) Sept. 28 at $3.50; recently $8.45 or +141.4%.
  • American Public Education (NASDAQ:APEI) Nov. 8 at $20.00; recently $44.00 or +120%.   
  • Athenahealth Inc (NASDAQ:ATHN) Sept. 19 at $18.00; recently $38.37 or +113.1%.   
  • Dolan Media (NYSE: DM) Aug. 1 at $14.50; recently $29.80 or +105.5%.

Join our free email distribution list for previews on IPO’s, spin-off’s, reorganization, restructuring, merger-arb, buyouts, M&A, and more.

Jon C. Ogg
December 26, 2007

Posted on: December 26, 2007 – 8:20 am in HI/LOW, IPOs, , , , , , , , , ,

Cramer’s Latin Internet Call (MELI, BIDU, GOOG)

On tonight’s MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer was discussing an opportunity he sees in Argentina-based Mercadolibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI).  Cramer likes the model.  It hosts an online trading platform in Latin America that facilitates e-commerce and related services.  It permits businesses and individuals to list items and conduct their sales and purchases online in either a fixed-price or auction-based format.  It also provides MercadoPago for online payments to be paid and sent.

Cramer of course used the Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Baidu.com (NASDAQ:BIDU) analogy to derive a value, but said it’s more similar to Baidu.  He really digs its Latin America focus and he noted that this one could go from around $55.00 to somewhere around $85.00 down the road.

Even more interestingly, Cramer did something different than his normal caveats about waiting for a sell-off or a pullback.  He noted something to the tune of, "You might get it cheaper if you wait, but I wouldn’t wait too long on this one."

Mercadolibre came public at the end of Summer and every time this has pulled back it has just been a buying opportunity.   Its shares closed up 5.5% today at $53.63 and that was less than 1% under its prior 52-week highs.  Shares rose over 5% in after-hours to almost $57.00.

Jon C. Ogg
December 13, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: December 13, 2007 – 7:03 pm in ADR, Cramer, Internet, , , , ,