PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) Shares Up 3.1% Following Analyst Upgrade

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) shares shot up 3.1% during trading on Wednesday after Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on the stock from $82.00 to $90.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. PriceSmart traded as high as $80.72 and last traded at $80.61. 34,409 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 153,364 shares. The stock had previously closed at $78.20.

PSMT has been the subject of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com lowered PriceSmart from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 13th. TheStreet upgraded PriceSmart from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th.

Insider Activity at PriceSmart

In other PriceSmart news, Director Gordon H. Hanson sold 937 shares of PriceSmart stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.86, for a total transaction of $74,828.82. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,969 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $636,404.34. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other PriceSmart news, Director Gordon H. Hanson sold 937 shares of PriceSmart stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.86, for a total transaction of $74,828.82. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,969 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $636,404.34. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Edgar Zurcher sold 1,075 shares of PriceSmart stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 18.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in PriceSmart by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,319,255 shares of the company’s stock valued at $251,533,000 after buying an additional 141,920 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of PriceSmart by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 198,989 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,079,000 after purchasing an additional 25,831 shares during the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC increased its position in shares of PriceSmart by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 13,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $990,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in PriceSmart by 342.1% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 58,388 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,425,000 after purchasing an additional 45,180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perpetual Ltd lifted its holdings in PriceSmart by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 116,541 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,831,000 after purchasing an additional 14,802 shares during the last quarter. 80.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

PriceSmart Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.21 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $81.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. PriceSmart had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 2.62%. The business’s revenue was up 13.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.25 EPS. Analysts expect that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 4.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PriceSmart Announces Dividend

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

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.