PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) COO John D. Hildebrandt Sells 580 Shares

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT - Get Free Report) COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 580 shares of PriceSmart stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.40, for a total transaction of $53,592.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $79,279.20. This trade represents a 40.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

PriceSmart Stock Down 1.1 %

PriceSmart stock traded down $1.02 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $90.97. The company had a trading volume of 270,088 shares, compared to its average volume of 227,840. PriceSmart, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $74.74 and a fifty-two week high of $99.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.04 and a beta of 0.86. The firm's fifty day moving average is $91.75 and its 200-day moving average is $89.67.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The company reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.43 by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.24 billion. PriceSmart had a return on equity of 12.29% and a net margin of 2.76%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.24 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of PriceSmart

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PSMT. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of PriceSmart by 227.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 46,710 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,287,000 after purchasing an additional 32,438 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp raised its holdings in PriceSmart by 18.4% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 39,513 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,627,000 after buying an additional 6,137 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of PriceSmart by 47.0% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 18,195 shares of the company's stock worth $1,677,000 after buying an additional 5,818 shares during the last quarter. Burney Co. bought a new stake in shares of PriceSmart during the 4th quarter worth about $5,030,000. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of PriceSmart by 1.0% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 53,096 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,873,000 after purchasing an additional 503 shares during the period. 80.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com raised PriceSmart from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday.

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.