MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) is the most comprehensive ecommerce ecosystem in Latin America in terms of unique visitors and page views.
It has a strong footprint in 18 countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Peru. The company facilitates commerce through its marketplace platform, which empowers users to buy and sell in most of Latin America.
Its other services include fintech solutions, advertising, e-store setup, and loan financing.
Due to its diversified operations and ever-expanding e-commerce model, the company is often referred to as the Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) of Latin America.
The stock has rallied by 63.3% over the past year, and shares could have more upside ahead. Still, risks persist, and since the potential upside does not seem to scream a buying opportunity, I am neutral on the stock. (See MELI stock charts on TipRanks)
Rapidly Growing Results
In Q2 2021, MercadoLibre's gross merchandise value grew 46% in local currency to $7 billion. Items sold surpassed 244 million on the platform, producing $1.7 billion in net revenue during the quarter, a 102.6% increase year-over-year.
MercadoLibre's growth remains therefore incredibly strong, with little to no signs of slowing down.
As far as its fintech business goes, Total Payments Volume (TPV) advanced 72% year-over-year to $17.5 billion, while credit originations reached $703 million, a 429% year-over-year improvement.
These are very impressive growth numbers for a relatively huge company (market cap of $84 billion) with MercadoLibre's payment solutions, especially, showing huge potential. The company's solutions are quite close to that of PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL), and are not necessarily constricted within MercadoLibre's. Specifically, in Q2, around 60% of TPV occurred outside of MercadoLibre's e-commerce platform.
As its fintech ecosystem grows, MercadoLibre's offering of investment accounts should also bolster the company's financials. There are now more than 19 million customers in the company's asset management product.
The reason MercadoLibre's leading position in Latin America could result in unlocking a great potential here is that the population in Latin America is significantly unbanked. In Brazil, around 10% of the adult population does not even have a bank account. In Argentina, less than 50% of all adults have a bank account. Hence, there is an incredibly large untapped market for the company to capture.
Valuation And Risks
MercadoLibre is currently trading at around 13 times its forward sales, which is not a crazy-high multiple considering its ongoing expansion.
Analysts essentially price the company at 28 times its FY2025 potential net income, which is a rather reasonable pricing estimate.
That said, there are some risks not to be ignored. The first is regarding foreign exchange rates. Not only are MercadoLibre's revenues subject to various Latin American currencies, which are often very volatile, but U.S. investors face another conversion to USD before getting the company's final results.
Further, Latin America as a whole poses increased business environment risks versus the rest of the world, due to its still emerging status among its stronger global peers.
Wall Street's Take
Turning to Wall Street, MercadoLibre has a Strong Buy consensus rating, based on nine Buys, zero Holds, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months. At $1,998.89, the average MELI price target implies 18.8% upside potential.
Disclosure: At the time of publication, Nikolaos Sismanis did not have a position in any of the securities mentioned in this article.
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