Insider Selling: PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) Director Sells 937 Shares of Stock

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) Director Gordon H. Hanson sold 937 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.86, for a total value of $74,828.82. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,969 shares in the company, valued at approximately $636,404.34. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

PriceSmart Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PSMT opened at $79.39 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.42 billion, a PE ratio of 19.95 and a beta of 0.92. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $81.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $75.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.49. PriceSmart, Inc. has a 12 month low of $61.82 and a 12 month high of $86.90.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 10th. The company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. PriceSmart had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 2.62%. PriceSmart’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.25 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 4.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PriceSmart Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a None dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th. PriceSmart’s payout ratio is 29.15%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PriceSmart

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of PriceSmart by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,319,255 shares of the company’s stock worth $251,533,000 after purchasing an additional 141,920 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 6.1% during the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 2,592,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $185,281,000 after buying an additional 148,758 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,261,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,631,000 after buying an additional 60,673 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 0.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 998,361 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,939,000 after buying an additional 6,772 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on PSMT shares. StockNews.com cut PriceSmart from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 13th. TheStreet upgraded PriceSmart from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th.

About PriceSmart

PriceSmart, Inc owns and operates U.S.-style membership shopping warehouse clubs in the United States, Central America, the Caribbean, and Colombia. The company provides basic and private label consumer products under the Member's Selection brand, including groceries, cleaning supplies, health and beauty aids, meat, produce, deli, seafood, and poultry.