MELI Q1 Earnings Call: E-Commerce and Fintech Momentum Amid Strategic Investments
Latin American e-commerce and fintech company MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) reported Q1 CY2025 results beating Wall Street's revenue expectations , with sales up 37% year on year to $5.94 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $9.74 per share was 21.9% above analysts' consensus estimates.
Is now the time to buy MELI? Find out in our full research report (it's free).
Revenue: $5.94 billion vs analyst estimates of $5.49 billion (37% year-on-year growth, 8.1% beat)
Adjusted EPS: $9.74 vs analyst estimates of $7.99 (21.9% beat)
Adjusted EBITDA: $935 million vs analyst estimates of $784.9 million (15.8% margin, 19.1% beat)
Operating Margin: 12.9%, in line with the same quarter last year
Free Cash Flow Margin: 12.8%, down from 43.2% in the previous quarter
Unique Active Buyers: 67 million, up 13.5 million year on year
Market Capitalization: $122.2 billion
MercadoLibre's management attributed the latest quarter's financial performance to balanced growth across its core e-commerce and fintech divisions, with notable gains driven by expanding user engagement, enhanced logistics infrastructure, and a focus on user experience improvements. CFO Martin de los Santos highlighted that brand preference metrics reached new highs across major markets, while the credit portfolio grew significantly without a rise in delinquencies. Argentina was called out as a particularly strong contributor, with stabilization in its macroeconomic environment supporting improved margins and higher operating income.
Looking ahead, management emphasized its plans to continue investing in both technology and user acquisition across Latin America, even as it faces rising competition and evolving market dynamics. De los Santos explained, 'We do not manage the business to a short-term margin goal; our emphasis is on capturing long-term growth opportunities in commerce and fintech.' Management acknowledged that further investments—especially in logistics, credit products, and promotional activity—could lead to short-term margin pressures, but views these as necessary to sustain the company's growth trajectory.
Management's remarks provided context for the quarter's outperformance, driven by innovation in financial products, improved logistics, and strategic focus on high-growth categories. They outlined how operational efficiencies and market-specific adaptations have begun to pay off, especially in Argentina and across the fintech segment.
Argentina's Margin Expansion: Management credited Argentina's performance to a combination of macroeconomic stabilization, effective cost management, and increased adoption of both e-commerce and fintech services. Improved asset quality and higher transaction volume enabled better fixed cost absorption.
Supermarket Category Acceleration: The supermarket segment grew faster than any other, enabled by better product selection, enhanced shopping features, and increased share of first-party (1P) inventory, which delivered more favorable unit economics than third-party (3P) sales.
Fintech User Growth and Engagement: Monthly active users in the fintech division surpassed 64 million, with 'yielding account' features and competitive remuneration rates reinforcing user loyalty, particularly in Brazil and Mexico.
Credit Portfolio Expansion: The credit card business scaled rapidly, with credit quality improving. Management attributed this to refined risk models, a shift toward higher-quality borrowers, and region-specific strategies. Argentina's credit quality was noted as especially robust, due to historically low private sector debt.
Investments in Logistics and Branding: Continued investment in logistics infrastructure and the unification of the Mercado Pago brand color scheme were described as steps toward building a single, integrated ecosystem. Management reported that logistics investments remained consistent as a percentage of revenue, supporting ongoing marketplace growth.
Management expects future performance to hinge on continued user growth and deeper fintech adoption, while remaining cautious about short-term margin headwinds from ongoing investments and competitive pressures.
Marketplace Expansion: The company sees significant headroom in e-commerce penetration across Latin America, especially in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and underpenetrated markets such as Mexico.
Fintech Product Adoption: Management anticipates that expanded digital banking offerings—including high-yield accounts and credit cards—will increase user engagement and cross-sell opportunities, supporting both revenue and margin growth over time.
Margin Management and Competitive Risks: While the focus remains on growth, management cautioned that margin expansion may be constrained in the near term by logistics investments, credit portfolio scaling, and intensified competition from new entrants, particularly in Brazil and Mexico.
Andrew Ruben (Morgan Stanley): Asked about the sustainability of Argentina's contribution margin, management cited both easier comps and genuine operational improvements, emphasizing cost efficiencies and expanding credit business profitability.
Irma Sgarz (Goldman Sachs): Inquired about drivers behind first-party (1P) sales growth and margin evolution, with management highlighting technology investments in automatic pricing and selection, and the strategic importance of 1P in supermarkets.
Marcelo Santos (JPMorgan): Sought updates on logistics expansion, especially in Brazil; management confirmed no major changes to previously announced plans and stressed logistics' role as a key enabler for future growth.
Neha Agarwala (HSBC): Asked for details on credit asset quality trends, to which management responded that asset quality remains solid, aided by a move upmarket and particularly strong results in Argentina.
Craig Maurer (FT Partners): Questioned the evolving competitive environment, especially from new digital banks and Asian e-commerce entrants. Management said competition remains intense but unchanged, and that new entrants often help grow the overall online market.
In the coming quarters, the StockStory team will monitor (1) the pace of fintech user adoption and whether new product launches like credit cards in Argentina gain traction, (2) the ability of MercadoLibre to maintain margin discipline as it scales logistics and expands into new categories, and (3) competitive dynamics in Mexico and Brazil—particularly the impact of new entrants in digital banking and e-commerce. The rollout of enhanced marketplace features and ongoing improvements in asset quality will also be important markers of execution.
MercadoLibre currently trades at a forward EV/EBITDA ratio of 28.1×. Should you load up, cash out, or stay put? See for yourself in our free research report.
Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election sent major indices to all-time highs, but stocks have retraced as investors debate the health of the economy and the potential impact of tariffs.
While this leaves much uncertainty around 2025, a few companies are poised for long-term gains regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate, like our Top 5 Strong Momentum Stocks for this week. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 175% over the last five years.
Stocks that made our list in 2019 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+2,183% between December 2019 and December 2024) as well as under-the-radar businesses like Sterling Infrastructure (+1,096% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
HIVE Digital Technologies Announces the Acquisition of 7.2 MW Toronto Data Center for Future BUZZ HPC and Sovereign AI Development
This news release constitutes a "designated news release for the purposes of the Company's amended and restated prospectus supplement dated May 14, 2025, to its short form base shelf prospectus dated September 11, 2024. San Antonio, Texas--(Newsfile Corp. - June 23, 2025) - HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. (TSXV: HIVE) (NASDAQ: HIVE) (FSE: YO0) ("HIVE" or the "Company"), a global leader in sustainable digital infrastructure, is pleased to announce the signing of a purchase and sale agreement to acquire a facility and its property with a total installed capacity of approximately 7.2 megawatts, located in Toronto, Canada. This strategic move marks a significant milestone in HIVE's mission to scale high-performance computing ("HPC") infrastructure and accelerate the development of a sovereign Canadian AI ecosystem through its wholly owned subsidiary, BUZZ High Performance Computing Inc. ("BUZZ HPC"). Situated in Canada's largest tech hub, this facility will serve as a foundational pillar for BUZZ HPC's next phase of growth. The acquisition will enable BUZZ HPC to deploy highly dense, liquid-cooled advanced compute infrastructure to support sovereign workloads, including large-scale AI training, inference, and cloud services tailored for Canadian enterprises, government initiatives, and AI innovators. "This acquisition positions BUZZ HPC at the forefront of Canada's digital infrastructure evolution," said Craig Tavares, President and COO of BUZZ HPC. "Toronto is not only the largest city in Canada, but also the country's most important center for higher education, AI research, and dense fiber optic connectivity. With the explosion of demand for HPC and AI compute capacity, this Toronto site gives us a critical footprint to develop a sovereign AI data center — owned and operated in Canada by a Canadian public company — ensuring data residency, security, and national innovation leadership." The Toronto data center provides a strategic platform to support HIVE's long-term vision of building Canada's next-generation compute infrastructure. As the world witnesses an Olympics-style competition to build sovereign data centers to meet the epic growth in AI — as seen and reported by OpenAI's hyper-growth to a $10 billion run rate in just a couple of years and over 400 million active users — HIVE is proud to contribute to a future where Canadian data, AI models, and intellectual property can be developed and hosted on Canadian soil. This acquisition also reinforces HIVE's commitment to sustainable digital infrastructure, with the opportunity to integrate green energy sources as part of our broader green-focused goals. Frank Holmes, Executive Chairman of BUZZ HPC and HIVE, added, "As HIVE continues to scale, so now does BUZZ announce its scale, launching our Canadian sovereign strategy. This site will be BUZZ's first owned and operated Tier 3 data center, which will be strategically aligned with sovereign incentives. We will lead Canadian technology standards in the data center industry, as we will upgrade this site to liquid-cooled Tier 3 standards to power the next generation of GPUs for AI compute. We expect, once the upgrade is complete, this facility can operate a GPU cloud of up to 5,000 next generation GPUs for AI compute." Aydin Kilic, President and CEO of HIVE, stated, "We enthusiastically take this next step forward to drive value for HIVE shareholders through BUZZ HPC. Craig Tavares has hit the ground running and is accelerating our vision to position HIVE and BUZZ HPC as leaders in Canada's high-performance computing data center industry. His deep expertise and leadership are helping us seize this opportunity to build sovereign, Tier 3 liquid-cooled infrastructure that will power the next generation of AI and HPC workloads. With Craig at the helm of BUZZ HPC and the proven skill set of our team, we are confident in our ability to innovate and scale." About HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. Founded in 2017 as the first publicly-traded crypto miner on the TSX Venture Exchange, HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. builds and operates sustainable blockchain and AI infrastructure powered exclusively by renewable hydroelectric energy. With a global footprint across Canada, Sweden, and Paraguay, HIVE is committed to operational excellence, green energy leadership, and creating long-term value for its shareholders and host communities. For more information, visit or connect with us on: X: On Behalf of HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. "Frank Holmes"Executive Chairman For further information, please contact: Nathan Fast, Director of Marketing and Branding Frank Holmes, Executive Chairman Aydin Kilic, President & CEO Tel: (604) 664-1078 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Forward-Looking Information Except for the statements of historical fact, this news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation and regulations that is based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. "Forward-looking information" in this news release includes but is not limited to: the acquisition of the data center facility located in Toronto, Canada on the terms as announced or at all, its potential, the timing of it becoming operational; business goals and objectives of the Company; the results of operations; the acquisition, deployment and optimization of the mining fleet and equipment, and their efficiency and aggregate computational power; the continued viability of its existing Bitcoin mining operations; the receipt of government consents; and other forward-looking information concerning the intentions, plans and future actions of the parties to the transactions described herein and the terms thereon. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: the inability to complete the configure the facility in Toronto, Canada on an economic and timely basis and achieve the desired operational performance; the volatility of the digital currency market; the Company's ability to successfully mine digital currency; the Company may not be able to profitably liquidate its current digital currency inventory as required, or at all; a material decline in digital currency prices may have a significant negative impact on the Company's operations; the regulatory environment for cryptocurrency in Canada, the United States and the countries where our mining facilities are located; economic dependence on regulated terms of service and electricity rates; the speculative and competitive nature of the technology sector; dependency on continued growth in blockchain and cryptocurrency usage; lawsuits and other legal proceedings and challenges; government regulations; the global economic climate; dilution; future capital needs and uncertainty of additional financing, including the Company's ability to utilize the Company's ATM Program and the prices at which the Company may sell Common Shares in the ATM Program, as well as capital market conditions in general; risks relating to the strategy of maintaining and increasing Bitcoin holdings and the impact of depreciating Bitcoin prices on working capital; the competitive nature of the industry; currency exchange risks; the need for the Company to manage its planned growth and expansion; the need for continued technology change; the ability to maintain reliable and economical sources of power to run its cryptocurrency mining assets; the impact of energy curtailment or regulatory changes in the energy regimes in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates; protection of proprietary rights; the effect of government regulation and compliance on the Company and the industry; network security risks; the ability of the Company to maintain properly working systems; reliance on key personnel; global economic and financial market deterioration impeding access to capital or increasing the cost of capital; share dilution resulting from the ATM Program and from other equity issuances; the construction and operation of facilities may not occur as currently planned, or at all; expansion may not materialize as currently anticipated, or at all; the digital currency market; the ability to successfully mine digital currency; revenue may not increase as currently anticipated, or at all; it may not be possible to profitably liquidate the current digital currency inventory, or at all; a decline in digital currency prices may have a significant negative impact on operations; an increase in network difficulty may have a significant negative impact on operations; the volatility of digital currency prices; the anticipated growth and sustainability of electricity for the purposes of cryptocurrency mining in the applicable jurisdictions; the inability to maintain reliable and economical sources of power for the Company to operate cryptocurrency mining assets; the risks of an increase in the Company's electricity costs, cost of natural gas, changes in currency exchange rates, energy curtailment or regulatory changes in the energy regimes in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates and the adverse impact on the Company's profitability; the ability to complete current and future financings, any regulations or laws that will prevent the Company from operating its business; historical prices of digital currencies and the ability to mine digital currencies that will be consistent with historical prices; an inability to predict and counteract the effects of pandemics on the business of the Company, including but not limited to the effects of pandemics on the price of digital currencies, capital market conditions, restriction on labour and international travel and supply chains; and, the adoption or expansion of any regulation or law that will prevent the Company from operating its business, or make it more costly to do so; and other related risks as more fully set out in the Company's disclosure documents under the Company's filings at and The forward-looking information in this news release reflects the Company's current expectations, assumptions, and/or beliefs based on information currently available to the Company. In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, the Company has made assumptions about the Company's objectives, goals or future plans, the timing thereof and related matters. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of the Company's normal course of business. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance, and accordingly, undue reliance should not be put on such information due to its inherent uncertainty. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
AeroVironment (AVAV) Reports Earnings Tomorrow: What To Expect
Aerospace and defense company AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) will be announcing earnings results this Tuesday afternoon. Here's what investors should know. AeroVironment missed analysts' revenue expectations by 10.9% last quarter, reporting revenues of $167.6 million, down 10.2% year on year. It was a disappointing quarter for the company, with full-year revenue guidance missing analysts' expectations significantly and full-year EBITDA guidance missing analysts' expectations significantly. Is AeroVironment a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it's free. This quarter, analysts are expecting AeroVironment's revenue to grow 23.7% year on year to $243.7 million, improving from the 5.9% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $1.41 per share. Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. AeroVironment has only missed Wall Street's revenue estimates once over the last two years, exceeding top-line expectations by 5.6% on average. Looking at AeroVironment's peers in the aerospace and defense segment, some have already reported their Q1 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. HEICO delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 14.9%, beating analysts' expectations by 3.5%, and Redwire reported a revenue decline of 30.1%, falling short of estimates by 16.5%. HEICO traded up 7.4% following the results while Redwire's stock price was unchanged. Read our full analysis of HEICO's results here and Redwire's results here. Investors in the aerospace and defense segment have had steady hands going into earnings, with share prices flat over the last month. AeroVironment is up 7.2% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $195.38 (compared to the current share price of $190.94). Here at StockStory, we certainly understand the potential of thematic investing. Diverse winners from Microsoft (MSFT) to Alphabet (GOOG), Coca-Cola (KO) to Monster Beverage (MNST) could all have been identified as promising growth stories with a megatrend driving the growth. So, in that spirit, we've identified a relatively under-the-radar profitable growth stock benefiting from the rise of AI, available to you FREE via this link.
The Hill
5 hours ago
- The Hill
Oil rises and US stock futures slip as markets react to US strike on Iran nuclear sites
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil rose and U.S. stock futures fell as global markets react to the U.S. strike against nuclear targets in Iran. The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 2.6% to $79 a barrel. U.S. crude rose 2.6% to $75.76 a barrel. On Saturday, U.S. forces attacked three Iranian nuclear and military sites, further increasing the stakes in the war between Israel and Iran. Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3%, while Nasdaq futures fell 0.5%. Treasury yields were little changed. The modest moves indicate markets are taking the latest development in stride. The conflict, which began with an Israeli attack against Iran on June 13, has sent oil prices yo-yoing, which has in turn caused see-saw moves for the U.S. stock market, because of rising and ebbing fears that the war could disrupt the global flow of crude. Iran is a major producer of oil and also sits on the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world's crude passes. An Iran retaliation that included closing off the waterway would be technically difficult to pull off but traders are afraid Iran could severely disrupt transit through it, sending insurance rates spiking and making shippers nervous to move without U.S. Navy escorts Some analysts think Iran is unlikely to close down the waterway because the country uses it to transport its own crude, mostly to China, and oil is a major source of revenue for the regime. 'It's a scorched earth possibility, a Sherman-burning-Atlanta move,' said Tom Kloza, chief market analyst at Turner Mason & Co. 'It's not probable.' Kloza thinks oil futures will ease back down after initial fears blow over. Ed Yardeni, a long-time analyst, agreed, writing in a report that Tehran leaders would likely hold back. 'They aren't crazy,' he wrote in a note to investors Sunday. 'The price of oil should fall and stock markets around the world should climb higher.' Other experts aren't so sure. Andy Lipow, a Houston analyst covering oil markets for 45 years, said countries are not always rational actors and that he wouldn't be surprised if Tehran lashed out for political or emotional reasons. 'If the Strait of Hormuz was completely shut down, oil prices would rise to $120 to $130 a barrel,' said Lipow, predicting that that would translate to about $4.50 a gallon at the pump and hurt consumers in other ways. 'It would mean higher prices for all those goods transported by truck, and it would be more difficult for the Fed to lower interest rates.'
