Insider Selling: PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) COO Sells $53,592.00 in Stock

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 580 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.40, for a total value of $53,592.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $79,279.20. This represents a 40.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

PriceSmart Trading Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ PSMT opened at $90.97 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $91.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $89.67. PriceSmart, Inc. has a 12 month low of $74.74 and a 12 month high of $99.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $2.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.04 and a beta of 0.86.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The company reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.43 by ($0.22). PriceSmart had a return on equity of 12.29% and a net margin of 2.76%. The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.24 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PriceSmart

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in PriceSmart by 39.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 30,423 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,470,000 after purchasing an additional 8,633 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 94.2% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 8,385 shares of the company’s stock worth $681,000 after buying an additional 4,067 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of PriceSmart by 179.1% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 57,052 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,633,000 after buying an additional 36,614 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in PriceSmart by 10.8% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 84,846 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,889,000 after acquiring an additional 8,266 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in PriceSmart by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 13,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,104,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. 80.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded PriceSmart from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday.

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.