Popular, Inc. $BPOP Shares Purchased by Franklin Resources Inc.

Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) by 8.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 92,905 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,308 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned 0.14% of Popular worth $10,239,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BPOP. Steph & Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Popular during the 2nd quarter valued at about $39,000. Allworth Financial LP grew its position in Popular by 2,158.8% in the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 384 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 367 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Popular by 112.2% during the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 418 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S acquired a new position in shares of Popular during the first quarter worth $47,000. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc boosted its stake in shares of Popular by 3,925.0% in the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 483 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 471 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on BPOP. Zacks Research raised shares of Popular from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Popular in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Popular in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Popular from $135.00 to $127.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Hovde Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Popular in a research report on Friday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $133.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Popular

In other Popular news, VP Adorno Denissa Rodriguez sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.84, for a total transaction of $114,840.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 2,604 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $299,043.36. This represents a 27.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Richard L. Carrion sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.50, for a total transaction of $2,837,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 193,020 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,907,770. The trade was a 11.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 44,001 shares of company stock worth $5,192,924 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 2.09% of the company’s stock.

Popular Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BPOP opened at $114.76 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 0.72. Popular, Inc. has a one year low of $78.23 and a one year high of $129.32. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $117.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $115.18.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The bank reported $3.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.04 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $720.83 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $803.95 million. Popular had a return on equity of 13.46% and a net margin of 17.63%.Popular’s quarterly revenue was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.16 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Popular, Inc. will post 10.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Popular Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. Popular’s payout ratio is currently 26.55%.

Popular Company Profile

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.