PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) announced its fiscal third quarter 2015 financial results today, missing Wall Streets’ earnings expectations. The retailer reported earnings per share of $0.70 against market estimates of $0.72, whereas its revenue came higher than the estimates. With net warehouse club sales of $675.3 million, PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) achieved 13% year-over-year growth, as its revenue for the prior period was $579.9 million. Analysts were expecting net sales of $665.8 million for the quarter. It has been an excellent financial year for the retailer, as its net sales for the first nine months of 2015 have grown by 10.8% to $2.04 billion against sales of $1.84 billion for the first nine months of its fiscal year 2014. PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) had 37 warehouse clubs active at the end of the quarter with its recent opening in Panama. The shares of the company have remained stable throughout the year, with 0.42% growth year-to-date.
The smart money had a bullish outlook on the retailer in the first quarter as nine hedge fund managers had $34.20 million worth of shares of the company at the end of the first quarter, a sizable increase from five investors holding $13.83 million in shares three months earlier. The large increase in holdings is even more notable when you factor in that shares of the company actually declined by nearly 7% during the quarter. Numerous investors clearly felt the entry point had been reached for PriceSmart on the dip and they were not wrong; shares are up by more than 12% since the end of the first quarter.
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We also track insider activity for important clues about the potential performance of companies. Insiders of PriceSmart, Inc. have executed a number of insider sales in 2015. Luis Jose Laparte, CEO and President at PriceSmart, made the largest insider sale during the year on April 21 when he sold 17,146 shares of the company.
Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at the latest hedge fund action regarding PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT).
