PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) Shares Cross Above 200 Day Moving Average of $79.79

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) shares passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $79.79 and traded as high as $80.30. PriceSmart shares last traded at $79.39, with a volume of 108,970 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PSMT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of PriceSmart from $82.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. StockNews.com upgraded PriceSmart from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th.

PriceSmart Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $82.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $79.79. The stock has a market cap of $2.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.13 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 1.20.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 10th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.07. The company 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%. PriceSmart’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 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 4.64 earnings per share for the current year.

PriceSmart Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 140,485 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,508,531.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 29th. The shares were 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 directly owns 140,485 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,508,531.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 505 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.36, for a total transaction of $40,581.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 1,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $135,406.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 27,200 shares of company stock worth $2,260,293 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 18.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PSMT. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of PriceSmart by 114.4% during the third 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 during the period. LSV Asset Management increased its stake in PriceSmart by 938.5% in the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 181,971 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,286,000 after acquiring an additional 164,449 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in PriceSmart by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,319,255 shares of the company’s stock valued at $251,533,000 after acquiring an additional 141,920 shares during the last quarter. Fourth Sail Capital LP bought a new position in PriceSmart in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $7,738,000. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its stake in PriceSmart by 2,132.7% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 88,015 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,670,000 after acquiring an additional 84,073 shares during the last quarter. 80.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.