Mercado Libre soars: its balance sheet surprised investors and its stock rises by 15% in New York

The stock of Mercado Libre jumped more than 15% on Wall Street this Thursday after unveiling a balance sheet that surprised investors and led them to buy the card from the Argentine-born company.

In its latest presentation of the results, Mercado Libre reported revenue for $ 2.6 billion for the second quarter of this year, up 56% of what it had achieved in the same period of 2021. The share of the company founded by Marcos Galperín has soared in the after market and jumped by 14%.

With the rise of this Thursday, MELI shares have accumulated a gain of over 27% so far in August and partially erases the reds it had shown since the beginning of the year. The Latin American e-commerce giant beat all predictions on key metrics. Analysts had expected a gross margin of 45.9%, and the company recorded 49% in the second quarter of 2022.

Mercado Libre’s gross profit was close to $ 1.3 billion, an increase of 70.3% in dollar terms compared to the same period of the previous year. Net income also climbed to $ 123 million, up 79.8%, with total margin improving year over year.

Operating income also set a record $ 250 million, with growth of 50.6% measured in dollars. André Chaves, senior vice president of strategy, business development and investor relations, told the trade press that in the past 18 months the company has begun to inform investors that given the size of the business, the strategy would be to gain market share and profitability.

The company’s fintech leg also surpassed the $ 1.04 billion estimate as Mercado Pago’s net profit grew by 112.5%, reaching $ 1,200 million, year after year. Even the market payment it hit the billion dollar mark for the first time.

“Among some of the most important aspects that Mercado Libre reported and which partly explain the positive reading of investors, is the increase of 26% in the unique active users of the fintech segment. They reached a total of 38.2 million at end of June “, said Maximiliano Donzelli, of IOL, who stressed that these numbers have been reached a global context of economic slowdown.

Donzelli added: “We cannot fail to mention the accelerated growth rate maintained by the Mercado Pago divisionwhich reached a volume of payments that exceeded 30,000 million dollars (a record for the company), thus recording an increase of approximately 84% compared to the same quarter of the previous year ”.

Despite the local crisis, Argentina appears as the second most important country for the regional operation of MELI. However, Brazil continues to be the most relevant market and accounts for 56% of its total income.

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