Benchmark sends a bullish research report to Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre (MELI.US), highlighting both its safe haven and alpha properties.

Wall Street renowned investment institution Benchmark rated MercadoLibre (MELI.US), one of the world's largest e-commerce platforms, as the absolute dominant force in the Latin American e-commerce market, giving the stock a "buy" rating for the first time. The analyst team at Benchmark initiated coverage of the Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre on Tuesday, Eastern Time, giving it the most optimistic "buy" investment rating and a target price of up to $2500, meaning a potential upside of over 20% in the next 12 months. Benchmark stated that MercadoLibre is a regional absolute leader in the global e-commerce market, taking advantage of the fact that the Latin American digital market is not yet saturated and has a significantly low penetration rate. This e-commerce giant has incredibly strong growth potential in both online retail and financial technology sectors. "As a recognized leader in the region, holding over a quarter of the market share in Latin American online retail, MercadoLibre is well positioned to capitalize on the expansion narrative of the strongest growing region in e-commerce business," Benchmark stated in a research report released on April 15. The analyst team at Benchmark believes that this e-commerce giant provides investors with strong and sustainable long-term growth prospects, especially as MercadoLibre has a deep understanding of the growing trend of Latin American buyers and has tremendous potential to expand its market size in the underserved financial technology market through effective cross-selling and upselling models. Benchmark's 12-month target price for MercadoLibre is $2500, implying a potential upside of approximately 22.7%. Since the beginning of the year, MercadoLibre's stock price has risen significantly by about 25%, far outperforming the U.S. stock market benchmark - the S&P 500 index, which has dropped over 8% since the beginning of the year. MercadoLibre's strong performance year-to-date highlights the e-commerce giant's powerful "safe haven investment properties" in the global market turmoil, as well as its value in generating "alpha excess returns." "Alpha" is defined as investment returns that far exceed "beta returns" - which refer to the synchronous investment return data achieved by tracking benchmark stock indexes. Synchronous returns achieved by tracking benchmark indexes are also referred to as "beta returns." What is MercadoLibre? Why is its future growth prospects so strong? Performance data for the fourth quarter of last year show that Q4 total sales were about $6.06 billion, up 37.4% year-over-year, exceeding Wall Street analysts' expectations by $1.2 billion; earnings per share were $12.61, significantly beating expectations by $5.05. Q4 total payments were as high as $58.9 billion, up 33% year-over-year; GMV was up 8% year-on-year, excluding the impact of foreign exchange, up 56% year-over-year. "MercadoLibre had a bountiful year in 2024, with more consumers and merchants choosing us, allowing us to surpass the milestone of 100 million annual active buyers and 60 million fintech monthly active users for the first time," the company's management stated in its performance statement. MercadoLibre is rightfully the e-commerce giant in Latin America, operating in 18 countries in Latin America, including core economies such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Founded in Argentina in 1999, MercadoLibre's initial funding came from leaders in Silicon Valley venture capital, with its founder Marcos Galperin still studying at Stanford University. Headquartered in Uruguay, MercadoLibre is the leading e-commerce and fintech giant in Latin America, dubbed the "Latin American version of Amazon.com, Inc." by some Wall Street analysts. With its immensely powerful e-commerce + fintech platform ecosystem built over years of deep cultivation in the Latin American market, extensive market coverage, and continuous years of investment, MercadoLibre is expected to continue to maintain its absolute leading position and strong growth trend in the Latin American e-commerce and fintech sectors in the coming years. Data forecasted by market research platform quartr.com shows that the Latin American e-commerce market is expected to grow from $151 billion in 2024 to $232 billion in 2028, with a growth expectation of over 54%. Despite being dominant in the Latin American e-commerce industry, MercadoLibre's e-commerce business and fintech service penetration rates in the region are still in the early stages, meaning that the e-commerce giant MercadoLibre is expected to demonstrate explosive performance growth data in the coming years with its powerful e-commerce + fintech ecosystem. MercadoLibre plans to invest 34 billion Brazilian reais (about $5.8 billion) in Brazil by 2025, an increase of nearly 50% from last year, focusing on logistics, technology, and marketing, and plans to create 14,000 jobs. By the end of 2025, the company's total workforce in Brazil is expected to reach 50,000. In addition, MercadoLibre also plans to invest $2.6 billion in the Argentine market, a significant increase of 53% from last year, and plans to invest $3.4 billion in Mexico to further expand its e-commerce and fintech businesses in Latin America.