Hilltop National Bank Makes New Investment in Popular, Inc. $BPOP

Hilltop National Bank bought a new stake in Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 1,297 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $143,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BPOP. Steph & Co. bought a new position in Popular in the second quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Popular by 112.2% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 418 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S bought a new position in shares of Popular in the 1st quarter valued at $47,000. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of Popular during the 1st quarter worth $84,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Popular by 33.4% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,749 shares of the bank’s stock worth $162,000 after buying an additional 438 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.27% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Gilberto Monzon sold 18,001 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.47, for a total transaction of $2,240,584.47. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 24,773 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,083,495.31. This represents a 42.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 2.09% of the company’s stock.

Popular Price Performance

Shares of Popular stock opened at $125.93 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $8.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.20, a PEG ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.68. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $121.98 and its 200 day moving average is $108.26. Popular, Inc. has a one year low of $78.23 and a one year high of $129.32.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $3.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.60 by $0.49. The firm had revenue of $800.03 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $777.38 million. Popular had a return on equity of 12.48% and a net margin of 16.49%.During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.46 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Popular, Inc. will post 10.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Popular Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a sep 25 dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th were paid a $0.1328 dividend. Popular’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.07%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Popular in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Popular from $133.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Popular in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Popular from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Popular from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $130.13.

About Popular

Popular, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides various retail, mortgage, and commercial banking products and services in Puerto Rico, the United States, and the British Virgin Islands. The company provides savings, NOW, money market, and other interest-bearing demand accounts; non-interest bearing demand deposits; and certificates of deposit.