PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) Downgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report published on Thursday morning.

Separately, 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 note on Wednesday, April 17th.

PriceSmart Stock Up 3.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ PSMT opened at $83.26 on Thursday. PriceSmart has a 1 year low of $61.82 and a 1 year high of $87.99. 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 cap of $2.55 billion, a PE ratio of 20.21 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $80.68.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 10th. The company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.21 billion. PriceSmart had a return on equity of 11.89% and a net margin of 2.60%. PriceSmart’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.02 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that PriceSmart will post 4.64 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Sherry S. Bahrambeygui sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 98,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,931,864.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other PriceSmart news, EVP Paul Kovaleski sold 1,176 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.72, for a total value of $96,102.72. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,950 shares in the company, valued at $3,673,314. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sherry S. Bahrambeygui sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.52, for a total value of $120,780.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 98,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,931,864.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 25,188 shares of company stock worth $2,100,453. 18.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of PriceSmart

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PSMT. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of PriceSmart by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC now owns 9,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $725,000 after buying an additional 147 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in PriceSmart by 76.4% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 5.2% in the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 4,239 shares of the company’s stock worth $356,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its position in shares of PriceSmart by 1.4% during the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 21,918 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,841,000 after buying an additional 292 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Watershed Asset Management L.L.C. grew its holdings in PriceSmart by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Watershed Asset Management L.L.C. now owns 3,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $296,000 after buying an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.