Francisco Velasco Sells 555 Shares of PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) Stock

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) EVP Francisco Velasco sold 555 shares of PriceSmart stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.42, for a total transaction of $50,183.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 79,008 shares in the company, valued at $7,143,903.36. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

PriceSmart Price Performance

PSMT stock opened at $90.79 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $91.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $89.36. PriceSmart, Inc. has a 52-week low of $74.74 and a 52-week high of $99.23. The company has a market capitalization of $2.78 billion, a P/E 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 (NASDAQ:PSMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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). PriceSmart had a net margin of 2.76% and a return on equity of 12.29%. The business had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.24 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 5.28 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PriceSmart

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Copeland Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in PriceSmart by 29.2% during the 4th quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 621,697 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,302,000 after purchasing an additional 140,515 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its holdings in PriceSmart by 2.7% during the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,818,927 shares of the company’s stock worth $258,721,000 after buying an additional 74,201 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in PriceSmart by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,182,739 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,552,000 after buying an additional 65,492 shares during the last quarter. Burney Co. bought a new position in PriceSmart during the 4th quarter valued at $5,030,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in PriceSmart by 179.1% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 57,052 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,633,000 after acquiring an additional 36,614 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of 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.