PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) Plans Semi-annual Dividend of $0.63

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) declared a semi-annual dividend on Monday, February 10th,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. This is a positive change from PriceSmart’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.58.

PriceSmart has raised its dividend 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 3.3 %

PriceSmart stock opened at $94.65 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 1.26. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $92.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $89.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.85 and a beta of 0.85. PriceSmart has a 52 week low of $77.51 and a 52 week high of $99.23.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The company reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by ($0.22). PriceSmart had a net margin of 2.76% and a return on equity of 12.29%. The business 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 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that PriceSmart will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at PriceSmart

In related news, EVP Paul Kovaleski sold 3,235 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.96, for a total value of $291,020.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,986,037.64. This trade represents a 6.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Jeffrey Fisher sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.00, for a total value of $465,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,611 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,730,823. This trade represents a 21.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 22,497 shares of company stock worth $2,040,918. Corporate insiders own 17.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.