By Christiana Sciaudone
Investing.com -- MercadoLibre Inc (NASDAQ:MELI) is going on a hiring spree, prompting UBS to reiterate a buy on the company.
The Argentine ecommerce retailer said earlier this week that it will double its workforce, adding 16,000 jobs, of which the most -- 7,200 -- will be in Brazil and 4,700 will be in Mexico, where it will more than quadruple the current staff in the country. It will invest $1.1 billion there, the company told Bloomberg.
Mercado Libre has been a major pandemic winner in countries that had been slower to adopt online shopping. Shares of the Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) competitor (in some countries) rose almost 200% over the past 12 months. Sales almost doubled to $1.3 billion in the quarter ended in December compared to a year earlier.
"This announcement reinforces our view that MELI is best positioned to dominate the Latin American eCommerce and Fintech space," said UBS analyst Gustavo Piras Oliveira, according to StreetInsider."
He set a price target of $2,000, which compares to the $1,978 average price target, according to data compiled by Investing.com.