Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $111.14.

BPOP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Popular from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $125.00 price target (up from $115.00) on shares of Popular in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Popular from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Hovde Group cut their target price on shares of Popular from $118.00 to $114.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Popular from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $110.00 to $100.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 9th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Popular

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Popular by 54.8% during the first quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 6,778 shares of the bank’s stock worth $626,000 after buying an additional 2,400 shares during the period. Fourth Sail Capital LP lifted its stake in Popular by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Fourth Sail Capital LP now owns 120,182 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $11,101,000 after acquiring an additional 3,782 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in Popular by 33.4% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,749 shares of the bank’s stock worth $162,000 after acquiring an additional 438 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its stake in shares of Popular by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 593,900 shares of the bank’s stock worth $54,859,000 after acquiring an additional 34,575 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Popular in the first quarter valued at approximately $4,687,000. Institutional investors own 87.27% of the company’s stock.

Popular Price Performance

BPOP opened at $100.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $90.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $95.23. Popular has a fifty-two week low of $78.23 and a fifty-two week high of $106.81. The company has a market cap of $6.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.60.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The bank reported $2.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.26 by $0.30. Popular had a net margin of 14.15% and a return on equity of 11.89%. The company had revenue of $755.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $760.45 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.43 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Popular will post 10.06 EPS for the current year.

Popular Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, May 29th will be paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 29th. Popular’s payout ratio is presently 28.90%.

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.