Sherry S. Bahrambeygui Sells 1,500 Shares of PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) Stock

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) Director Sherry S. Bahrambeygui sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.52, for a total transaction of $120,780.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 98,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,931,864.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

PriceSmart Stock Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ PSMT traded up $0.16 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $81.65. 55,965 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 158,391. PriceSmart, Inc. has a 52 week low of $61.82 and a 52 week high of $86.90. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $81.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $76.07. The company has a market cap of $2.49 billion, a PE ratio of 20.47 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 0.49.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 10th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.24 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. PriceSmart had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 2.62%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.25 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 4.64 earnings per share for the current year.

PriceSmart Announces Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PriceSmart

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PSMT. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in PriceSmart by 114.4% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 492,976 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,692,000 after purchasing an additional 263,016 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in PriceSmart by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,319,255 shares of the company’s stock worth $251,533,000 after acquiring an additional 141,920 shares in the last quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC purchased a new stake in PriceSmart during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $7,951,000. Fourth Sail Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of PriceSmart in the 4th quarter valued at about $7,738,000. Finally, UBS Group AG lifted its position in shares of PriceSmart by 2,132.7% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 88,015 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,670,000 after purchasing an additional 84,073 shares during the last quarter. 80.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.