PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) to Issue None Dividend of $1.00

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) declared a None dividend on Wednesday, April 3rd, NASDAQ reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be paid a dividend of 1.00 per share on Tuesday, April 30th. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th.

PriceSmart has increased its dividend payment by an average of 9.5% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 3 consecutive years. PriceSmart has a payout ratio of 27.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect PriceSmart to earn $5.21 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.16 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 22.3%.

PriceSmart Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ PSMT opened at $79.71 on Tuesday. 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 capitalization of $2.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.03 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $81.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.68. PriceSmart has a 52-week low of $61.82 and a 52-week high of $86.90.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 10th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.24 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.29 billion during 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 quarterly revenue was up 13.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.25 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that PriceSmart will post 4.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PriceSmart news, Director Edgar Zurcher sold 1,075 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.08, for a total transaction of $85,011.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 8,822 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $697,643.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 18.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PriceSmart

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in PriceSmart in the 1st quarter valued at about $37,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its position in PriceSmart by 80.3% in the 1st quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 338 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in PriceSmart by 358.3% in the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 860 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in PriceSmart in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $87,000. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position in PriceSmart by 148.0% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,649 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,000 after buying an additional 984 shares during the period. 80.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PSMT. StockNews.com downgraded 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.

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.