Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires 2,831 Shares of PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT - Free Report) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 128,191 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 2,831 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.42% of PriceSmart worth $11,815,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of PSMT. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of PriceSmart during the 4th quarter valued at $53,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its position in PriceSmart by 3,905.9% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 681 shares of the company's stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 664 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in PriceSmart by 49.0% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,159 shares of the company's stock worth $107,000 after purchasing an additional 381 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in PriceSmart by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,278 shares of the company's stock worth $117,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of PriceSmart by 313.2% in the 3rd quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,037 shares of the company's stock worth $187,000 after purchasing an additional 1,544 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.46% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PriceSmart news, COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 580 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.40, for a total value of $53,592.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 858 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $79,279.20. This trade represents a 40.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jeffrey Fisher sold 1,700 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $161,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,911 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,606,545. The trade was a 9.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 21,162 shares of company stock valued at $1,930,402. Company insiders own 17.10% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded PriceSmart from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th.

PriceSmart Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:PSMT traded down $0.79 on Monday, hitting $88.60. The company had a trading volume of 84,757 shares, compared to its average volume of 228,157. PriceSmart, Inc. has a 1 year low of $77.51 and a 1 year high of $99.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $91.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $90.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.52 and a beta of 0.85.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The company reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.24 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.24 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PriceSmart Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. PriceSmart's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.75%.

PriceSmart 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.