PriceSmart, Inc. (PSMT) to Issue Semi-annual Dividend of $0.63 on August 29th

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) declared a semi-annual dividend on Tuesday, February 11th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid 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% annually over the last three years. PriceSmart has a dividend payout ratio of 20.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings.

PriceSmart Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PSMT opened at $93.55 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $92.15 and its 200-day moving average is $89.95. PriceSmart has a 1-year low of $77.51 and a 1-year high of $99.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market cap of $2.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.61 and a beta of 0.85.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The company reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.43 by ($0.22). PriceSmart had a return on equity of 12.29% and a net margin of 2.76%. The company had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.24 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that PriceSmart will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at PriceSmart

In other PriceSmart news, Director Gordon H. Hanson sold 1,107 shares of PriceSmart stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.22, for a total transaction of $96,552.54. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,862 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $598,503.64. The trade was a 13.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Jeffrey Fisher sold 1,700 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the director now directly owns 16,911 shares in the company, valued at $1,606,545. The trade was a 9.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,962 shares of company stock valued at $1,911,398 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 17.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com lowered PriceSmart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday.

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.