Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) Director Alejandro Sanchez Sells 300 Shares of Stock

Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) Director Alejandro Sanchez sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.36, for a total transaction of $45,108.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,960 shares in the company, valued at $595,425.60. This represents a 7.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Popular Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BPOP opened at $152.12 on Wednesday. Popular, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $102.00 and a fifty-two week high of $152.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.63. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $142.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $132.93.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The bank reported $3.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.30 by $0.48. Popular had a net margin of 20.10% and a return on equity of 14.53%. The business had revenue of $816.08 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $866.54 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.56 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Popular, Inc. will post 15.14 EPS for the current year.

Popular Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 29th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 29th. Popular’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.16%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Popular

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Popular by 56.2% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,962,871 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $376,314,000 after acquiring an additional 1,065,452 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Popular during the fourth quarter valued at $104,955,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Popular by 85.2% in the fourth quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 680,282 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $84,709,000 after purchasing an additional 312,984 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Popular by 2,752.6% in the third quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 312,447 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $39,684,000 after purchasing an additional 301,494 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Popular by 12,382.7% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 258,517 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $32,191,000 after purchasing an additional 256,446 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BPOP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Popular from $153.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Hovde Group increased their price objective on shares of Popular from $153.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Popular from $156.00 to $173.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Popular from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Popular from $170.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $168.73.

About Popular

Popular, Inc, headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a financial holding company and a leading provider of banking services in the United States mainland and Puerto Rico. Through its primary subsidiaries—Banco Popular de Puerto Rico and Popular Bank—the company delivers comprehensive commercial and consumer banking solutions. It offers deposit products, lending facilities, cash management services and payment-processing solutions designed for individuals, small businesses and large corporations.

The company’s product suite encompasses checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, residential and commercial mortgage loans, business lines of credit and credit cards.