PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) Lifted to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Friday 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 report on Wednesday, April 17th.

PriceSmart Stock Performance

Shares of PriceSmart stock opened at $87.04 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $82.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $81.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.13 and a beta of 0.85. 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 has a 52 week low of $61.82 and a 52 week high of $91.28.

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

Insider Activity

In related 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 transaction of $491,520.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 140,485 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,508,531.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other PriceSmart news, EVP David R. Price sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.85, for a total value of $175,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 51,768 shares in the company, valued at $4,547,818.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 6,000 shares of PriceSmart 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 140,485 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,508,531.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,422 shares of company stock valued at $3,497,464 in the last quarter. 18.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PriceSmart

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. LSV Asset Management raised its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 938.5% during the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 181,971 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,286,000 after buying an additional 164,449 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 141,920 shares during the period. Fourth Sail Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of PriceSmart during the fourth quarter worth about $7,738,000. UBS Group AG increased its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 2,132.7% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of PriceSmart by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,261,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,631,000 after purchasing an additional 60,673 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.46% of the company’s stock.

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.