PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) EVP Sells $54,857.00 in Stock

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) EVP Francisco Velasco sold 550 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.74, for a total value of $54,857.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 78,458 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,825,400.92. This represents a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

PriceSmart Stock Down 1.3 %

PSMT stock opened at $104.45 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $91.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $90.99. PriceSmart, Inc. has a twelve month low of $77.51 and a twelve month high of $106.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market cap of $3.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.01 and a beta of 0.75.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 9th. The company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. PriceSmart had a net margin of 2.76% and a return on equity of 12.29%. PriceSmart’s revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.31 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PriceSmart Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a $0.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. This represents a dividend yield of 1.2%. PriceSmart’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.92%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PSMT. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of PriceSmart by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,305,698 shares of the company’s stock worth $120,345,000 after acquiring an additional 5,947 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in PriceSmart by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,230,696 shares of the company’s stock worth $113,434,000 after purchasing an additional 48,108 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in PriceSmart by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,204,566 shares of the company’s stock worth $111,025,000 after purchasing an additional 21,827 shares during the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC increased its stake in PriceSmart by 25.8% in the first quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 782,353 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,730,000 after purchasing an additional 160,656 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of PriceSmart by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 692,864 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,874,000 after buying an additional 7,994 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded PriceSmart from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th.

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.