Retail warehouse stores operator PriceSmart, Inc. PSMT announced its August comps which declined sequentially over the past two months.
Headquartered in San Diego, PriceSmart is involved in the operation of membership shopping warehouses in international markets. It has stores in 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. At Aug 2015-end, the company had 37 warehouse clubs in operation. Net warehouse club sales for Aug 2015 grew 12.6% year over year to $232.7 million.
PriceSmart has reported 3% growth in comps for 33 warehouse clubs for the five weeks ended Aug 31, 2015. August comps were lower than 3.5% in July, 4% in June and 4.6% in May.
PriceSmart’s comps have remained relatively weak this year as well as in 2014.
The company has been facing challenging scenario in some of its markets, which hurts its sales and comps. The company’s sales are hurt by weaker economies and unfavorable currency translations particularly, Colombian peso and the Costa Rica colon. Since Colombian and the Costa Rica are two of the company’s largest markets, unfavorable currency translations and overall economic softness in these markets are hurting the company’s sales.
The Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) company also announced that it plans to release fourth-quarter fiscal 2015 results on Oct 29, 2015 after the market closes.
Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks in the retail sector are Target Corp. TGT, Jeronimo Martins SGPS SA JRONY and Ingles Markets, Incorporated IMKTA. While Jeronimo Martins sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Target Corp and Ingles Markets carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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