PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) Declares $0.63 Semi-annual Dividend

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT - Get Free Report) announced a semi-annual dividend on Tuesday, February 11th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a dividend of 0.63 per share on Friday, August 29th. This represents a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th.

PriceSmart has increased its dividend by an average of 18.3% per year over the last three years. PriceSmart has a payout ratio of 20.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings.

PriceSmart Trading Down 1.9 %

PSMT traded down $1.83 on Friday, hitting $91.98. 119,407 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 225,256. 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 has a 12 month low of $77.51 and a 12 month high of $99.23. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $92.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $89.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.82 billion, a PE ratio of 20.26 and a beta of 0.85.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The company reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.43 by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.24 billion. PriceSmart had a net margin of 2.76% and a return on equity of 12.29%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.24 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that PriceSmart will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded PriceSmart from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday.

Insider Activity at PriceSmart

In other PriceSmart news, CFO Michael Mccleary sold 4,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.67, for a total transaction of $358,680.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 58,141 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,213,503.47. This represents a 6.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 8,020 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.51, for a total value of $725,890.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 123,547 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,182,238.97. The trade was a 6.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,962 shares of company stock worth $1,911,398 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 17.10% of the company's stock.

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.