John D. Hildebrandt Sells 8,020 Shares of PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) Stock

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 8,020 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.51, for a total value of $725,890.20. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 123,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,182,238.97. This represents a 6.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

PriceSmart Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:PSMT opened at $90.79 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $91.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $89.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.00 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 1.26. PriceSmart, Inc. has a 1 year low of $74.74 and a 1 year high of $99.23.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last released 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). The business had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.24 billion. PriceSmart had a return on equity of 12.29% and a net margin of 2.76%. The company’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.24 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of PriceSmart by 46.7% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 96,088 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,802,000 after buying an additional 30,581 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its position in shares of PriceSmart by 21.0% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 9,010 shares of the company’s stock valued at $726,000 after buying an additional 1,562 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of PriceSmart in the second quarter valued at $268,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new position in shares of PriceSmart in the second quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of PriceSmart by 39.6% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 30,423 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,470,000 after buying an additional 8,633 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded PriceSmart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th.

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.