Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Acquires New Holdings in PriceSmart, Inc. $PSMT

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 6,588 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $692,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of PriceSmart in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,685,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. bought a new position in PriceSmart in the second quarter valued at approximately $18,313,000. Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of PriceSmart in the first quarter valued at approximately $13,109,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its position in shares of PriceSmart by 353.9% during the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 169,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,929,000 after acquiring an additional 132,502 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of PriceSmart during the second quarter worth $10,325,000. 80.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at PriceSmart

In other PriceSmart news, COO John D. Hildebrandt sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.10, for a total value of $1,151,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 115,615 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,307,286.50. This represents a 7.96% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Francisco Velasco sold 550 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.82, for a total value of $67,551.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 80,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,892,905.36. This represents a 0.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 20,304 shares of company stock worth $2,297,538. Insiders own 17.10% of the company’s stock.

PriceSmart Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of PSMT stock opened at $116.70 on Friday. PriceSmart, Inc. has a 52-week low of $81.25 and a 52-week high of $125.48. The stock has a market cap of $3.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.62 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $119.01 and its 200-day moving average is $110.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a current ratio of 1.28.

PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.33 billion. PriceSmart had a net margin of 2.82% and a return on equity of 12.46%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.94 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that PriceSmart, Inc. will post 5.28 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded PriceSmart from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. Weiss Ratings raised PriceSmart from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PriceSmart presently has a consensus rating of “Strong Buy”.

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.