What: Shares of MercadoLibre (MELI -0.45%) were up 10.5% at 12:25 p.m. Thursday after the Latin American e-commerce company reported better-than-expected third-quarter 2015 results.
So what: Quarterly revenue rose 14% year over year in U.S. dollars (67.9% in local currencies) to $168.6 million. Excluding Venezuela, revenue rose 15.2% in U.S. dollars and 53.7% in local currencies. Growth was driven by a 26.2% increase in items sold to 34 million, while gross merchandise volume rose 9.5% in USD (76.9% in local currencies) to $1.842 billion. Meanwhile, MercadoPago's total payment transactions rose 75.2% year over year to 22 million, and total payment volume rose 42% in USD (94.9% in local currencies) to $1.384 billion.
On the bottom line, net income rose 35.2% in U.S. dollars to $45.6 million, or $1.03 per share. Excluding one-time items, net income came in at $33.1 million, or $0.75 per share.
Analysts were less optimistic on both the top and bottom lines. Consensus estimates called for net income excluding one-time items of $0.62 per share, and revenue of $160.5 million.
MercadoLibre CFO Pedro Arnt added, " Our business continued to show strong traction across the board in the third quarter. We remain excited about our business and future prospects, and will continue to focus relentlessly on innovation and execution of our strategic initiatives, which we believe will pave the way for us to consolidate our position as the go to e-commerce platform in Latin America."
Now what: MercadoLibre has opted not to provide forward guidance given the current challenging macroeconomic environment. But investors are rightly encouraged by today's stronger-than-expected report in spite of those challenges. If MercadoLibre can continue to show it will thrive no matter what the market throws its way, it should emerge stronger than ever when these headwinds eventually abate.
