Norges Bank Purchases Shares of 842,875 Popular, Inc. $BPOP

Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 842,875 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $104,955,000. Norges Bank owned 1.26% of Popular as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Popular by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,489,936 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,057,167,000 after purchasing an additional 37,424 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Popular by 56.2% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,962,871 shares of the bank’s stock worth $376,314,000 after purchasing an additional 1,065,452 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Popular by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,405,575 shares of the bank’s stock worth $175,057,000 after purchasing an additional 64,778 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management boosted its holdings in shares of Popular by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,043,733 shares of the bank’s stock worth $129,966,000 after purchasing an additional 88,765 shares during the period. Finally, UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in shares of Popular by 28.1% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 540,646 shares of the bank’s stock worth $67,321,000 after purchasing an additional 118,496 shares during the period. 87.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BPOP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Popular from $170.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Popular from $135.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Piper Sandler boosted 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 boosted 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, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Popular from $155.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $168.73.

Popular Stock Performance

BPOP stock opened at $153.07 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $145.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $134.76. Popular, Inc. has a 52-week low of $102.56 and a 52-week high of $153.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.31, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.62.

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

Popular Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Alejandro M. Sanchez sold 300 shares of Popular stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director directly owned 3,960 shares in the company, valued at approximately $595,425.60. This trade represents a 7.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Alejandro M. Ballester sold 23,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $3,450,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 34,588 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,188,200. This trade represents a 39.94% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 29,500 shares of company stock worth $4,415,870. 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.