PriceSmart, Inc. Announces None Dividend of $1.00 (NASDAQ:PSMT)

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) announced a None dividend on Wednesday, April 3rd, NASDAQ reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be given a dividend of 1.00 per share on Tuesday, April 30th. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th.

PriceSmart has raised its dividend payment by an average of 9.5% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 3 years. PriceSmart has a payout ratio of 27.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect PriceSmart to earn $5.21 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.16 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 22.3%.

PriceSmart Stock Performance

PSMT opened at $79.71 on Tuesday. PriceSmart has a 52-week low of $61.82 and a 52-week high of $86.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 1.20. The company has a market cap of $2.44 billion, a PE ratio of 20.03 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $81.68 and a 200-day moving average of $75.68.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 10th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.07. PriceSmart had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 2.62%. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.25 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that PriceSmart will post 4.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at PriceSmart

In other news, Director Edgar Zurcher sold 1,075 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.08, for a total value of $85,011.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,822 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $697,643.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 18.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PriceSmart

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of PSMT. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its position in PriceSmart by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 2,592,064 shares of the company’s stock valued at $185,281,000 after buying an additional 148,758 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,319,255 shares of the company’s stock valued at $251,533,000 after purchasing an additional 141,920 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 75.4% in the 2nd quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 242,938 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,992,000 after purchasing an additional 104,454 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 175.0% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 103,697 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,178,000 after purchasing an additional 65,984 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its stake in shares of PriceSmart by 495.7% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 68,973 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,192,000 after purchasing an additional 57,395 shares during the period. 80.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PSMT has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com cut PriceSmart from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. TheStreet raised PriceSmart from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th.

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.