These 2 Stocks Are Popping After Hours Tuesday

Stocks continued on their downward trajectory to begin the holiday-shortened week on Tuesday, with signs of war in Eastern Europe and nervousness about its geopolitical and macroeconomic impact. Declines were felt across the market, and the S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.58%) closed more than 10% below its all-time high to mark the beginning of an official broad market correction. Declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI -0.12%) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -1.15%) were in line with the S&P's drop.

Data source: Yahoo! Finance.

Yet after the closing bell, a couple of stocks got much-needed bounces after having lost considerable ground in recent months. Both MercadoLibre (MELI -0.00%) and Cadence Design Systems (CDNS -2.36%) reported their latest financial results, and investors liked what they saw enough to send their share prices up in after-hours trading. Below, we'll look more closely at both stocks to see why they performed so well even under challenging conditions.

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MercadoLibre keeps its business growing

Shares of MercadoLibre jumped more than 10% after hours, making up for their 5% drop in the regular session earlier on Tuesday. The Latin American e-commerce giant reported fourth-quarter financial results that took a few steps toward restoring confidence in the hard-hit stock, which had fallen by more than half from its highs from last year.

MercadoLibre's latest numbers were as strong as ever. Revenue jumped 74% to $2.1 billion on a currency-neutral basis, with gross merchandise volume climbing to $8 billion. More than 82 million users took advantage of the MercadoLibre ecosystem, with almost 300 million live listings offered on its e-commerce marketplace.

In addition, MercadoLibre's other businesses did well. The Mercado Pago payment network saw 73% currency-neutral growth in payment volume to $24.2 billion, with almost 1.03 billion payment transactions taking place on the service. Meanwhile, the Mercado Envios shipping service shipped almost 276 million items during the quarter, up 29% year over year.

MercadoLibre lost money in the quarter, giving back some of its profits from earlier in the year. Nevertheless, investors were pleased to see the e-commerce company keep growing key business metrics, and MercadoLibre expects good times ahead in 2022 as well.

Cadence looks to pick up the pace

Meanwhile, shares of Cadence Design Systems rose nearly 9% in after-hours trading Tuesday. The electronic systems design specialist had fourth-quarter financial results that reassured shareholders even as some of its key business metrics saw slowing growth.

On their face, Cadence's fourth-quarter results weren't entirely glowing. Revenue inched upward less than 2% year over year to $773 million, with net income making a similar-size small gain as well. But adjusted earnings of $0.82 per share were better than most investors had forecast, despite being lower than last year's $0.83 per share figure.

What really wowed investors, though, was the outlook that Cadence gave. The company expects 2022 full-year revenue of between $3.32 billion and $3.38 billion, which would represent growth of 11% to 13%. Moreover, earnings guidance for between $3.70 and $3.80 per share would be a decent-size boost compared to the $3.29 final total for 2021.

Cadence came into the day having lost 30% from its highs in late December, but investors seem a lot more confident in the company now. With plenty of demand for design software, shareholders hope to see a steadier Cadence in 2022 and beyond.