Bailard Inc. Acquires New Position in Popular, Inc. $BPOP

Bailard Inc. acquired a new stake in Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,403 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $559,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ethic Inc. purchased a new position in Popular during the third quarter valued at approximately $653,000. Brendel Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Popular in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,660,000. Burney Co. increased its holdings in shares of Popular by 134.3% in the 3rd quarter. Burney Co. now owns 48,557 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,167,000 after acquiring an additional 27,837 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Popular by 47.3% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 188,960 shares of the bank’s stock worth $20,818,000 after acquiring an additional 60,701 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Popular by 40.8% during the 3rd quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 41,270 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,242,000 after purchasing an additional 11,957 shares during the last quarter. 87.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BPOP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler began coverage on Popular in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $152.00 target price on the stock. Zacks Research cut shares of Popular from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Popular from $150.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Popular in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Popular from $142.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 30th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $137.00.

Insider Transactions at Popular

In related news, Director Richard L. Carrion sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.50, for a total value of $2,837,500.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 193,020 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,907,770. This represents a 11.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Adorno Denissa Rodriguez sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.84, for a total transaction of $114,840.00. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 2,604 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $299,043.36. This represents a 27.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 2.09% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Popular Trading Down 3.7%

NASDAQ:BPOP opened at $121.97 on Friday. Popular, Inc. has a twelve month low of $78.23 and a twelve month high of $131.10. The company has a market cap of $8.13 billion, a PE ratio of 10.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 0.63. The company’s 50 day moving average is $121.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $120.06.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The bank reported $3.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.04 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $720.83 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $803.95 million. Popular had a net margin of 17.63% and a return on equity of 13.27%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.16 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Popular, Inc. will post 10.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Popular Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 5th. Popular’s payout ratio is presently 26.55%.

Popular Company 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.