Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Sells 59,182 Shares of Popular, Inc. $BPOP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lowered its holdings in Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) by 1.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,222,266 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 59,182 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 4.96% of Popular worth $432,318,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 valued at $1,057,167,000 after acquiring an additional 37,424 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Popular by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,361,681 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $543,117,000 after acquiring an additional 58,452 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Popular by 56.2% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,962,871 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $376,314,000 after purchasing an additional 1,065,452 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Popular by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,405,575 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $175,057,000 after purchasing an additional 64,778 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management increased its position in Popular by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,043,733 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $129,966,000 after purchasing an additional 88,765 shares during the period. 87.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Alejandro M. Ballester sold 23,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $3,450,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 34,588 shares in the company, valued at $5,188,200. This trade represents a 39.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Maria Cristin Gonzalez-Noguera sold 6,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.51, for a total value of $920,762.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 11,255 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,671,480.05. The trade was a 35.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 29,500 shares of company stock valued at $4,415,870. 2.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on BPOP shares. Zacks Research cut shares of Popular from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Popular from $172.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Popular from $155.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Popular from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Popular from $173.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Popular currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $177.83.

Popular Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BPOP opened at $172.12 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $158.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $144.87. Popular, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $108.74 and a fifty-two week high of $174.69. The company has a market capitalization of $11.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.71, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 0.61.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The bank reported $3.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.30 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $816.08 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $866.54 million. Popular had a return on equity of 14.53% and a net margin of 20.10%.During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.56 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Popular, Inc. will post 15.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Popular Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 29th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 29th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. Popular’s payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

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.