Great Lakes Advisors LLC Takes $1.07 Million Position in Popular, Inc. $BPOP

Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 6,498 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,067,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of BPOP. Foster & Motley Inc. bought a new position in shares of Popular in the 2nd quarter worth $780,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Popular during the 2nd quarter valued at $54,916,000. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Popular during the 2nd quarter valued at $6,914,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Popular by 108.3% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 149,094 shares of the bank’s stock worth $24,478,000 after buying an additional 77,507 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in Popular by 6.2% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,240 shares of the bank’s stock worth $368,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. 87.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on BPOP. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Popular from $190.00 to $207.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Popular from $192.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Popular from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Popular from $178.00 to $188.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (a-)” rating on shares of Popular in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $186.92.

Popular Price Performance

BPOP opened at $169.07 on Friday. Popular, Inc. has a 1 year low of $108.74 and a 1 year high of $179.24. The company has a market capitalization of $10.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.42, a P/E/G ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $169.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $152.52.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The bank reported $4.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.72 by $0.63. The firm had revenue of $846.92 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $878.41 million. Popular had a net margin of 21.37% and a return on equity of 15.34%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.09 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Popular, Inc. will post 15.72 EPS for the current year.

Popular Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. This is a positive change from Popular’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 10th. Popular’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.27%.

Insider Transactions at Popular

In other Popular news, CEO Javier D. Ferrer sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.43, for a total value of $6,140,050.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 96,478 shares in the company, valued at $16,925,135.54. The trade was a 26.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Luis E. Cestero sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.36, for a total value of $1,499,060.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 16,013 shares in the company, valued at $2,824,052.68. This represents a 34.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 52,961 shares of company stock valued at $9,290,985. Corporate insiders own 2.13% of the company’s stock.

Popular Profile

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.