Mild Insider Selling at PriceSmart Inc. (PSMT) and ANSYS Inc. (ANSS); Insider Buying at Three Other Companies

Insider at Warehouse Club Operator Sell Shares After Ending Streak of Comparable-Sales Declines

Although a high portion of the recent insider selling comprises selling made under pre-arranged trading plans, there were a few companies that registered spur-of-the-moment insider selling. For instance, one member of PriceSmart Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT)’s Board of Directors offloaded some shares this week. Board member Sherry S. Bahrambeygui sold 3,000 shares on Thursday, 2,500 shares on Wednesday and 1,000 shares on Tuesday at prices that fell between $83.50 and $85.00 per share. Ms. Bahrambeygui currently owns a total of 145,291 shares after the sales mentioned above.

The warehouse club operator has seen its market capitalization increase by 16% in the past year. PriceSmart Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) managed to break a trend of comparable-sales declines, as its comparable warehouse club sales for the 13-week period that ended December 4 were flat relative to the same 13-week period of the previous year. The company’s operations have been impacted by events in Colombia in recent years, mainly resulting from a major drop in the value of the Colombian peso relative to the U.S. dollar beginning in August 2014 that hit both sales and margins in that market. Meanwhile, the number of asset managers from our system invested in the warehouse club operator decreased to five from seven during the third quarter. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies LLC reported ownership of 376,000 shares of PriceSmart Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) in the 13F filing for the third quarter.

Executive at Developer of Engineering Simulation Software Discards Some Shares

One member of ANSYS Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS)’s management team also unloaded some shares this week. Sheila S. DiNardo, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary since January 2004, liquidated 3,000 units of common stock on Tuesday at a price tag of $93.47 each. Following the recent sale, Ms. Sheila currently owns an aggregate of 24,963 shares.

ANSYS Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS), which develops and sells engineering simulation software and services used by engineers, designers, researchers and students across a wide spectrum of industries and academia, has seen the value of its shares increase by 9% in the past 12 months. The company’s top-line figure for the September quarter grew 2.4% year-over-year despite a negative growth rate for North America, which was impacted by a partial shift in customer preference for time-based licenses and a single customer perpetual order in the third quarter of 2015 that did recur in the third quarter of the next year. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management reported owning around 70,000 shares of ANSYS Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS) in its 13F for the fourth quarter.

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