State Street Corp Decreases Stock Holdings in PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT)

State Street Corp decreased its position in PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) by 1.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,027,385 shares of the company’s stock after selling 13,961 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp’s holdings in PriceSmart were worth $94,293,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PSMT. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of PriceSmart by 20.4% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,085,897 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,175,000 after acquiring an additional 184,252 shares during the period. Copeland Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of PriceSmart by 18.7% in the third quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 481,182 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,163,000 after acquiring an additional 75,896 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of PriceSmart by 5.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,182,739 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,552,000 after acquiring an additional 65,492 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management increased its position in shares of PriceSmart by 28.9% in the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 234,571 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,047,000 after acquiring an additional 52,600 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of PriceSmart by 179.1% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 57,052 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,633,000 after acquiring an additional 36,614 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded shares of PriceSmart from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 30th.

PriceSmart Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PSMT opened at $94.47 on Tuesday. PriceSmart, Inc. has a 1 year low of $72.14 and a 1 year high of $99.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The company’s 50-day moving average is $90.79 and its 200 day moving average is $87.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.67 and a beta of 0.86.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.01 by ($0.07). PriceSmart had a net margin of 2.83% and a return on equity of 12.63%. The company had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.65 EPS. PriceSmart’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at PriceSmart

In other PriceSmart news, EVP Francisco Velasco sold 827 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.03, for a total value of $75,281.81. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 84,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,681,566.55. This represents a 0.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP David R. Price sold 2,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.24, for a total transaction of $253,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 48,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,505,370.56. This trade represents a 5.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,290 shares of company stock worth $1,476,009 over the last 90 days. 18.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.