Broker Revenue Forecasts For MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) Are Surging Higher

MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to this year's forecasts. The analysts have sharply increased their revenue numbers, with a view that MercadoLibre will make substantially more sales than they'd previously expected.

After this upgrade, MercadoLibre's 21 analysts are now forecasting revenues of US$19b in 2024. This would be a huge 25% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to soar 57% to US$34.98. Prior to this update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$18b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$33.70 in 2024. Sentiment certainly seems to have improved in recent times, with a nice gain to revenue and a small increase to earnings per share estimates.

Check out our latest analysis for MercadoLibre

Although the analysts have upgraded their earnings estimates, there was no change to the consensus price target of US$1,920, suggesting that the forecast performance does not have a long term impact on the company's valuation.

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the MercadoLibre's past performance and to peers in the same industry. The period to the end of 2024 brings more of the same, according to the analysts, with revenue forecast to display 34% growth on an annualised basis. That is in line with its 41% annual growth over the past five years. Compare this with the broader industry, which analyst estimates (in aggregate) suggest will see revenues grow 10% annually. So although MercadoLibre is expected to maintain its revenue growth rate, it's definitely expected to grow faster than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away from this upgrade is that analysts upgraded their earnings per share estimates for this year, expecting improving business conditions. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for this year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. Given that analysts appear to be expecting substantial improvement in the sales pipeline, now could be the right time to take another look at MercadoLibre.

Still, the long-term prospects of the business are much more relevant than next year's earnings. We have estimates - from multiple MercadoLibre analysts - going out to 2026, and you can see them free on our platform here.

Of course, seeing company management invest large sums of money in a stock can be just as useful as knowing whether analysts are upgrading their estimates. So you may also wish to search this free list of stocks that insiders are buying.

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