The Latin American specialist for e-commerce and digital payments reported excellent financial results.
Shares of MercadoLibre (MELI 6.62 %) rose sharply on Thursday, gaining as much as 10.6 %. As of 2:32 p.m. ET, the stock was still up 6.7%.
The catalyst for the online retail and fintech specialist's upswing was its quarterly financial report, which far exceeded expectations.
A virtual dynamo:
MercadoLibre generated revenue of $5.9 billion in the first quarter, an impressive 64% year-on-year increase in local currencies. Results were driven by a 57% increase in e-commerce revenue and a 73% increase in fintech revenue. The company also generated an operating profit of 763 million US dollars (an increase of 45%) and a quarterly net profit of 494 million US dollars. This resulted in earnings per share (EPS) of USD 9.74, an increase of 44%.
To put these figures into context: Analysts' consensus estimates were for sales of $5.52 billion and earnings per share of $8.27, so MercadoLibre clearly exceeded expectations.
The company continued to deliver strong results across its product and service ecosystem. Gross merchandise volume (the total value of products sold on the digital retail platform) amounted to $13.3 billion, an increase of 40% year-on-year in local currencies, driven by 66.6 million unique shoppers. The total payment volume (TPV) of 58.3 billion US dollars increased by 72%.