Oct 27, 2026 earnings call — Strong sales, club expansion and tech updates
PriceSmart reported total revenue exceeding $1.5 billion in Q4.
Revenue $1.5B (est $1.5B) · EPS $1.21 (est $1.27)
Key quotes
"We serve almost 2.2 million member accounts, up 8.7% year-over-year, with over 4 million cardholders across our markets."
"Chile represents a meaningful milestone for this company and a market we believe has significant long-term potential."
"That means we will not finish by the second quarter of fiscal year 2027, as previously communicated, but we are continuing to work towards completing implementation as soon as practicable."
Analyst Q&A 2
Why Colombia profit fell
Q (Jon Braatz · Kansas City Capital): Analyst asked what is causing operating margin weakness in Colombia and what management is doing to restore margins. He also asked whether the recent rapid pace of store openings will continue and how new stores pressure near-term earnings.
A: Management said Colombia sales rose but margins are distorted by several specific items: Chile startup costs of about $4.2 million reported in the Colombia segment, a $0.8 million wealth tax, a plastic tax of about $500,000, $450,000, and about $9 million of additional expense allocations under transfer pricing rules. They also said they intend to keep growing but will do so at a sustainable pace; new club openings create pre-opening expenses that hit the P&L first and they are working on standardization and decentralization to minimize those costs.
"Most importantly, following transfer pricing rules, we are allocating more expenses to Colombia in the year for about $9 million." — Gualberto Hernandez (CFO)
Higher general costs, tax, and RELEX delay
Q (Héctor Maya · Scotiabank): Analyst asked how much of the 25% year-over-year increase in corporate G&A came from technology versus executive pay and how much was non-recurring, and asked for details on Q4 tax benefits and the expected effective tax rate next year. He also asked what caused the RELEX delay, the new completion date, and the expected cost and margin benefits when it is live.
A: They said full-year SG&A was 13.2% (up from 12.9%), a 30 basis point increase: 20 basis points came from additional technology investments and 10 basis points from a full-year CEO compensation versus zero in fiscal year 2025. They noted one-time impacts such as an audiology disposition hit of about $1.8 million. On taxes, Q4 had about $2.5 million of benefit from a $1.9 million reversal of a U.S. tax contingency and a $0.6 million long-due credit from the Dominican Republic; they said it is difficult to project a future effective tax rate and they do not guide. On RELEX, they said the delay was caused by the complexity of standardizing processes and data across many country buying teams; they prefer to "go slow to go fast," are using outside support and careful change management, and will not give a specific completion date but want to finish in a reasonable timeframe.
"20 basis points is coming from additional investments in technology, and 10 basis points are driven by the impact of a full-year compensation of our CEO versus zero in fiscal year 2025." — Gualberto Hernandez (CFO)