PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.07 EPS

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) released its earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.07, Briefing.com reports. PriceSmart had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 2.62%. The firm had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.25 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.1% on a year-over-year basis.

PriceSmart Trading Down 0.8 %

NASDAQ PSMT opened at $79.45 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.96 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.50. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $81.59 and its 200-day moving average is $75.62. PriceSmart has a one year low of $61.82 and a one year high of $86.90.

PriceSmart Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a None dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be given a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th. PriceSmart’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.15%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PriceSmart

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Townsquare Capital LLC grew its stake in PriceSmart by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 13,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $990,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC grew its stake in PriceSmart by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 13,412 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,016,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in PriceSmart by 0.4% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 45,160 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,235,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can grew its stake in PriceSmart by 1.0% in the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 21,203 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,716,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in PriceSmart by 9.0% in the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,712 shares of the company’s stock valued at $214,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered PriceSmart from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. TheStreet raised PriceSmart from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note 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.