PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) was downgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Thursday.

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on PriceSmart from $82.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th.

PriceSmart Price Performance

Shares of PSMT stock traded up $1.93 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $80.23. 387,380 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 152,238. PriceSmart has a twelve month low of $61.82 and a twelve month high of $87.99. The firm has a market cap of $2.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.16 and a beta of 0.85. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $82.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $80.56. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 10th. The company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.21 billion. PriceSmart had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 2.62%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.02 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that PriceSmart will post 4.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Edgar Zurcher sold 1,075 shares of PriceSmart stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.08, for a total transaction of $85,011.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 8,822 shares in the company, valued at $697,643.76. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, Director Edgar Zurcher sold 1,075 shares of PriceSmart stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.08, for a total transaction of $85,011.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 8,822 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $697,643.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 6,000 shares of PriceSmart stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.92, for a total value of $491,520.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 27,200 shares of company stock worth $2,260,293. 18.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of PriceSmart

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 114.4% in 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% during 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 period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in PriceSmart by 4.5% during 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 period. Fourth Sail Capital LP bought a new position in PriceSmart during the fourth quarter valued at about $7,738,000. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its stake in PriceSmart by 2,132.7% during 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.