Why MercadoLibre Shares Skyrocketed

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of MercadoLibre skyrocketed by upwards of 12% today after the Latin American e-commerce company reported earnings.

So what: Revenue for the first quarter came in at $102.7 million, easily beating the Street's $97.4 million forecast. That made up for the fact that adjusted earnings per share of $0.53 was slightly below consensus, which called for $0.54 per share. CEO Marcos Galperin said volume has been accelerating in both the marketplace and payments businesses.

Now what: Gross merchandise volume was up 30% to $1.6 billion, while total payments volume soared 62% to $532.1 million. Both of those figures are in local currencies. The number of items sold was up 21% to 18.1 million, with the number of payment transactions increasing 38% to 6.7 million. MercadoLibre generated $24 million in free cash flow during the quarter.

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The article Why MercadoLibre Shares Skyrocketed originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of MercadoLibre. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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