Edgar Zurcher Sells 1,075 Shares of PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) Stock

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) Director Edgar Zurcher sold 1,075 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.08, for a total value of $85,011.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 8,822 shares in the company, valued at approximately $697,643.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

PriceSmart Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of PriceSmart stock traded up $0.26 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $79.71. 178,332 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 154,446. PriceSmart, Inc. has a 1 year low of $61.82 and a 1 year high of $86.90. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $81.59 and its 200 day moving average is $75.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 1.20. The firm has a market cap of $2.44 billion, a PE ratio of 20.08 and a beta of 0.92.

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. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 4.38 earnings per share for the current year.

PriceSmart Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a None dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Friday, April 19th will be issued a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th. PriceSmart’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.15%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PriceSmart

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in PriceSmart by 4.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,177,335 shares of the company’s stock valued at $236,489,000 after buying an additional 133,814 shares during the last quarter. Tudor Investment Corp Et Al increased its holdings in PriceSmart by 43.4% in the third quarter. Tudor Investment Corp Et Al now owns 63,803 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,749,000 after buying an additional 19,311 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its holdings in PriceSmart by 77.9% in the third quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 41,675 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,102,000 after buying an additional 18,249 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in PriceSmart by 114.4% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, RWC Asset Management LLP acquired a new position in PriceSmart in the third quarter valued at $4,778,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered PriceSmart from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. TheStreet raised 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.