PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) Position Reduced by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its position in shares of PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) by 3.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 125,360 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,908 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in PriceSmart were worth $11,506,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Arizona State Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of PriceSmart by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 7,293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $592,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of PriceSmart by 76.4% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the period. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of PriceSmart by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC now owns 9,864 shares of the company’s stock valued at $801,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in shares of PriceSmart by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 4,239 shares of the company’s stock valued at $356,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning increased its holdings in shares of PriceSmart by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 7,720 shares of the company’s stock valued at $709,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the period. 80.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PriceSmart news, EVP Francisco Velasco sold 670 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.05, for a total transaction of $59,663.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 79,470 shares in the company, valued at $7,076,803.50. This represents a 0.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael Mccleary sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.62, for a total value of $358,480.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 62,141 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,569,076.42. This represents a 6.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,960 shares of company stock valued at $1,535,673 over the last ninety days. 18.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded PriceSmart from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st.

PriceSmart Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of PSMT stock opened at $87.21 on Monday. PriceSmart, Inc. has a 12 month low of $66.79 and a 12 month high of $94.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The business’s 50 day moving average is $89.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $86.23. The company has a market cap of $2.68 billion, a PE ratio of 19.08 and a beta of 0.85.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.94 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 analyst estimates of $1.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.65 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 5.28 EPS for the current year.

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.