John D. Hildebrandt Sells 6,000 Shares of PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) Stock

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.92, for a total value of $491,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 140,485 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,508,531.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

PriceSmart Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ:PSMT opened at $81.55 on Thursday. PriceSmart, Inc. has a one year low of $61.82 and a one year high of $86.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.49 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $82.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $76.22.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 10th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.24 by $0.07. PriceSmart had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 2.62%. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.25 EPS. PriceSmart’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 4.64 EPS for the current year.

PriceSmart Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a None dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th were paid a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 18th. PriceSmart’s payout ratio is presently 29.15%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PSMT has been the subject of several analyst reports. TheStreet upgraded PriceSmart from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com lowered PriceSmart from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on PriceSmart from $82.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PriceSmart

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PSMT. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in PriceSmart by 235.9% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,847 shares of the company’s stock worth $361,000 after buying an additional 3,404 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in shares of PriceSmart by 93.1% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,278 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of PriceSmart by 0.7% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 94,848 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,060,000 after purchasing an additional 626 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of PriceSmart by 18.1% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 5,371 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,000 after purchasing an additional 824 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RWC Asset Management LLP purchased a new position in shares of PriceSmart during the third quarter valued at about $4,778,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.46% of the company’s stock.

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.