EMC Capital Management Has $315,000 Stock Holdings in Popular, Inc. $BPOP

EMC Capital Management decreased its stake in shares of Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) by 48.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,856 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 2,663 shares during the period. EMC Capital Management’s holdings in Popular were worth $315,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Popular by 52.8% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,432,599 shares of the bank’s stock worth $129,722,000 after purchasing an additional 495,325 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in Popular by 363.4% in the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 228,028 shares of the bank’s stock worth $25,131,000 after purchasing an additional 178,820 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in Popular by 19.7% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 710,860 shares of the bank’s stock worth $78,344,000 after buying an additional 116,960 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp bought a new position in Popular in the 1st quarter valued at $10,122,000. Finally, Invenomic Capital Management LP boosted its position in Popular by 136.1% in the 1st quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP now owns 169,183 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $15,627,000 after buying an additional 97,531 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BPOP has been the topic of several research reports. Zacks Research raised Popular from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Popular from $150.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Popular in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Popular in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Popular in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $133.56.

Popular Trading Up 2.5%

Shares of BPOP opened at $112.87 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $7.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 0.72. Popular, Inc. has a 1 year low of $78.23 and a 1 year high of $129.32. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $119.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $114.54.

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

Popular Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Popular’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Popular

In other Popular news, EVP Gilberto Monzon sold 18,001 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.47, for a total value of $2,240,584.47. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 24,773 shares in the company, valued at $3,083,495.31. This trade represents a 42.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 2.23% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.