Whenever Wall Street analysts start to take on a view on certain stocks or industries, retail investors can benefit by following the sentiment as well as attempting to reverse engineer where these opinions are coming from, so that they might also tag along in potential upside moves as long as the dots can be connected and justified. However, not all analysts are seen as equal; some carry more conviction than others regarding public opinion.
Some of the more “respected” and widely followed analysts are in the firm Goldman Sachs, carrying a plaque of prestige for their research and opinions. They are influential in themselves across the broader market, and those analysts have landed on a more bullish note for a certain stock in the technology sector, which is arguably more exposed to consumer retail trends through technology implementation.
That stock is MercadoLibre Inc (NASDAQ:), a company that has managed to dominate the e-commerce space in the Latin American region of the marketplace. It is particularly positioned in today’s volatile and uncertain world of trade tariffs rolled out by President Trump. Here are some reasons investors can follow Goldman’s call for MercadoLibre stock.
The Bigger Picture
When it comes to trade tariffs in today’s economy, one particular country is being affected, but it also creates the greatest opportunities for investors. China has been targeted with the biggest and most aggressive tariffs out of all the nations involved, and that has had some repercussions.
Consumers can now see the impacts in stocks like Alibaba (NYSE:) Group and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:)., which implement additional charges on orders and items that come from China. However, this avenue could potentially lead to some backdoor dealings.
As these names are too big to be tampered with in the consumer sector, loops might be found by sending items to other regions before going into the United States. This way, some (if not all) tariffs are avoided in the process. This is where MercadoLibre’s platform comes into play, as the largest presence and player in the Latin American region.
By receiving tariff-free inventory from China, Amazon can load up on this inventory from Latin America and then complete deliveries to American consumers. While this is a purely speculative idea and plan with no evidence of being implemented, it seems there might be some reality in today’s view for the stock.
What Financials Say About MercadoLibre
When looking into the latest quarterly earnings release from MercadoLibre, investors can note a few things. One of the most important drivers in the company is the number of active users and the business generated for the year. The company now reported just over 100 million in annual unique buyers on the platform, a significant foundation for financial growth.
This jump in users led to a gross market value (GMV) of products bought and sold to grow by 8% over the past 12 months, which helped reach $14.5 billion for the fourth quarter of 2024. In terms of revenue, this is where investors can see the benefits of this trend, as the company reported up to $6.1 billion for the quarter, or 37% above last year’s mark, to signal potential further growth ahead.
Knowing that these financial figures took place before the trade tariffs were implemented, analysts at Goldman Sachs got ahead of the curve and started to reflect this potential scenario within their most recent ratings and valuations. As of early March, when the tariff talks were already being accelerated, Goldman analysts reiterated a Buy target along with a $2,750 valuation target on MercadoLibre.
Even though the stock rallied by over 8% the day after the financial release, there seems to be a higher ceiling being perceived for its future. Other Wall Street entities caught onto this, as Barclays analysts followed suit with an Overweight rating alongside an even higher valuation of $3,100 per share.
Compared to today’s prices, which already represent a 520-week high in the stock, investors now face up to a 30% additional upside. This doesn’t seem all that unreasonable, considering that analysts forecast up to $10.15 in earnings per share () for the third quarter of 2025, a massive jump of 30% from today’s reported $7.82 in EPS. This matches the upside potential given by Barclays analysts and Goldman as well.
With all of these factors in mind, investors shouldn’t be surprised if they see the speculative thesis of backdoor dealings in MercadoLibre to avoid tariffs take place. After all, the signs are all there for such an event to take place and keep amplifying the company’s presence in the e-commerce space.
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