Popular (BPOP) & Its Rivals Critical Analysis

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) is one of 919 publicly-traded companies in the “Banks” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Popular to related businesses based on the strength of its valuation, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Popular and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Popular	22.36%	16.08%	1.32%
Popular Competitors	15.65%	9.44%	0.93%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Popular and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Popular	0	1	11	1	3.00
Popular Competitors	7483	30222	27804	1478	2.35

Popular presently has a consensus price target of $186.83, indicating a potential upside of 19.37%. As a group, “Banks” companies have a potential upside of 16.27%. Given Popular’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Popular is more favorable than its competitors.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Popular and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Popular	$4.44 billion	$833.16 million	9.86
Popular Competitors	$206.83 billion	$2.42 billion	21.06

Popular’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Popular. Popular is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Risk and Volatility

Popular has a beta of 0.63, suggesting that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Popular’s competitors have a beta of 0.61, suggesting that their average share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Popular pays an annual dividend of $3.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Popular pays out 22.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Banks” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.2% and pay out 28.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Popular has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

87.3% of Popular shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.9% of shares of all “Banks” companies are held by institutional investors. 2.1% of Popular shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.7% of shares of all “Banks” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Popular beats its competitors on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

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. It also offers commercial and industrial, commercial multi-family, commercial real estate, and residential mortgage loans; consumer loans, including personal loans, credit cards, automobile loans, home equity lines of credit, and other loans to individual borrowers; construction loans; and lease financing comprising automobile loans/leases. In addition, the company provides investment banking, auto and equipment leasing and financing, broker-dealer, and insurance services; debit cards; and online banking services. Popular, Inc. was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.