PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.63 Per Share

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) declared a semi-annual dividend on Monday, February 10th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a dividend of 0.63 per share on Friday, August 29th. This represents a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. This is an increase from PriceSmart’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.58.

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

PriceSmart Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of PriceSmart stock opened at $94.86 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $92.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $89.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. PriceSmart has a 12-month low of $77.51 and a 12-month high of $99.23. The company has a market cap of $2.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.89 and a beta of 0.85.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The company reported $1.21 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.24 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.24 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that PriceSmart will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at PriceSmart

In related news, CFO Michael Mccleary sold 4,000 shares of PriceSmart stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.67, for a total value of $358,680.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 58,141 shares in the company, valued at $5,213,503.47. This trade represents a 6.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 8,020 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 123,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,182,238.97. The trade was a 6.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 19,262 shares of company stock valued at $1,749,898. Corporate insiders own 17.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of PriceSmart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report 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.