PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) COO John D. Hildebrandt Sells 6,000 Shares

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.92, for a total transaction of $491,520.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 140,485 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,508,531.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

PriceSmart Stock Performance

NASDAQ PSMT opened at $80.59 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.25 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $81.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $76.18. PriceSmart, Inc. has a 1 year low of $61.82 and a 1 year high of $86.90.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 10th. The company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. PriceSmart had a net margin of 2.62% and a return on equity of 11.85%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.25 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 4.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PriceSmart Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a None dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Friday, April 19th were paid a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 18th. PriceSmart’s payout ratio is 29.15%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PriceSmart

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $251,533,000 after acquiring an additional 141,920 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised 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 valued at $95,631,000 after acquiring an additional 60,673 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 114.4% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 492,976 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,692,000 after acquiring an additional 263,016 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 3.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 392,529 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,216,000 after acquiring an additional 11,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 0.3% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 293,127 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,817,000 after acquiring an additional 811 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on PSMT. StockNews.com lowered shares of PriceSmart from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 13th. TheStreet upgraded shares of PriceSmart from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of PriceSmart from $82.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th.

PriceSmart Company Profile

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.