MercadoLibre shares move higher on record revenue, profits
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MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) shares shot higher in Thursdayâs after-hours session, recovering from a deep dive in the dayâs regular trading session.
The Argentinean eCommerce giant reported $1.07 billion in gross profits, a jump of 483 basis points from the prior year and $2.25 billion in revenue, up 63% from 2021. Both were noted as company records.
âWe kicked off 2022 with a strong first quarter across all businesses, following a record year in 2021,â an enthusiastic shareholder letter read. âMercado Libre is coming out of the pandemic period stronger than we were two years ago with a more mature business at scale, a larger team with complementary capabilities and much better services and experiences for our users in all of our key geographies.â
Indeed, the team is much larger than it was in the prior year period after a 16,000 person strong hiring push during the year. That figure is only being inflated in coming months, according to company ambitions. 
Other key figures found in the report included an 81.2% leap in total payment volume to $25.3 billion, a 31.6% surge in gross merchandise volume to $7.7 billion, and record delivery speed and efficiency whereby almost 55% of shipments were delivered on the same or the next day of purchase.
Shares rose about 5% in extended trading on the optimistic results and commentary.
To be sure, the company struck a familiar and cautionary refrain in terms of macroeconomic headwinds hitting the eCommerce industry. 
âWhile the business is stronger than ever before, we are facing a challenging backdrop with uncertainty surrounding consumer spending, higher interest rates and higher inflation in addition to coming out of a period of social mobility restrictions in key markets,â the shareholder letter admitted.
For the first quarter, operating margin fell about 0.4% from the comparable prior year period amid these pressures. Still, management advised that forward-thinking innovation and planning opportunities should protect the companyâs growth and stave off significant adverse impact. 
Read more on the companyâs continued expansion in headcount across Latin America.