MercadoLibre (MELI) shares slide despite Q1 profit and revenue rising

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI) reported first-quarter earnings after the close Wednesday, beating top and bottom-line consensus estimates.

The online marketplace firm reported Q1 EPS of $3.97, $1.16 better than the analyst estimate of $2.81, while revenue which grew 58.4% year-over-year, came in at $3 billion versus the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion.

MELI shares are currently down 2.7%.

The company's income from operations was $340 million, while total payment volume rose 96.1% year-over-year to $37 billion, and gross merchandise volume increased 43.3% to $9.4 billion.

Unique active users came in at 101 million, rising from 81 million in the same quarter last year.

"MercadoLibre has had a good start to the year, with encouraging performance across the business," the company said in its letter to shareholders. "We set a new Q1 record of $340mn for income from operations, with the margin over revenue expanding from 6.2% in Q1'22 to 11.2% in Q1'23. As the business continues to scale, we remain focused on strengthening operational efficiency so that our long-term growth - which remains our top priority - is sustainably profitable."

Looking ahead, the company said it has solid momentum and sees "attractive growth opportunities" with "many new products still to develop."

By Sam Boughedda

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