BUENOS AIRES (dpa-AFX) - Shares of e-commerce company MercadoLibre, Inc. (MELI) gained more than 15 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the company reported a nearly 40 percent surge in profit for the third quarter on strong revenue growth. Both earnings and revenue topped analysts' expectations.
The Argentina-based company's net income for the third quarter was $26.30 million or $0.60 per share, up from $18.80 million or $0.43 per share in the previous-year quarter. On average, eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.43 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Consolidated net revenues for the quarter surged 46 percent to $81.63 million from $55.95 million in the same period last year and topped analysts' consensus estimate of $78.67 million.
The latest quarter's results include a foreign currency gain of $3.28 million compared to foreign currency loss of $354 thousand in the year-ago period.
Marcos Galperin, President and Chief Executive Officer of MercadoLibre, said, 'MercadoLibre had an excellent third quarter, highlighting the importance of solid execution in driving our own results. Recent innovations on our platform combined with secular trends that continue to favor e-commerce in our region, generating strong growth throughout our marketplace, and our entire ecosystem.'
The company's gross merchandise volume in the quarter grew 51.8 percent year-over-year to $1.35 billion, while total payment volume grew 94.1 percent to $368.5 million.
Items sold on MercadoLibre during the quarter surged 38 percent to 14.4 million, while total payments transactions through MercadoPago more than doubled to 3.9 million.
Total confirmed registered users at the end of the quarter were 62 million, up 23 percent from the year-ago period. New confirmed registered users rose 28 percent to 3.6 million.
MELI closed Wednesday's trading at $63.42, up $0.86 or 1.37 percent on a volume of 1.07 million shares. In after-hours, the stock further gained $9.58 or 15.11 percent to $73.00.
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