PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT – Get Rating) in a research report released on Thursday. The firm issued a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on PSMT. TheStreet raised shares of PriceSmart from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Scotiabank cut shares of PriceSmart from a sector outperform rating to a sector perform rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $96.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 29th.

PriceSmart Stock Performance

NASDAQ PSMT opened at $68.45 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $70.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $66.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 0.56. PriceSmart has a 1 year low of $56.29 and a 1 year high of $88.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.13 billion, a PE ratio of 19.84 and a beta of 0.86.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 9th. The company reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter. PriceSmart had a return on equity of 10.86% and a net margin of 2.58%. The business had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.08 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis.

PriceSmart Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a Semi-Annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 14th. This represents a dividend yield of 1.2%. PriceSmart’s dividend payout ratio is 26.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PriceSmart news, Director Sherry S. Bahrambeygui sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.28, for a total transaction of $722,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 113,645 shares in the company, valued at $8,214,260.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Chong Jesus Von sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.41, for a total transaction of $70,410.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 25,134 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,769,684.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Sherry S. Bahrambeygui sold 10,000 shares of PriceSmart stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.28, for a total value of $722,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 113,645 shares in the company, valued at $8,214,260.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,703 shares of company stock worth $3,656,453 in the last quarter. 17.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in PriceSmart during the 1st quarter valued at $37,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 251.7% during the third quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 652 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of PriceSmart during the fourth quarter worth about $73,000. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 148.0% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,649 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,000 after purchasing an additional 984 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 43.1% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,737 shares of the company’s stock worth $137,000 after purchasing an additional 523 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.61% of the company’s stock.

PriceSmart Company Profile

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PriceSmart, Inc engages in the business of managing membership shopping warehouse club concepts to emerging and developing countries. It operates through the following geographical segments: United States Operations, Central American Operations, Caribbean Operations, and Colombia Operations. The Central America Operations segment includes Panama, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.