Hsbc Holdings PLC Purchases 18,721 Shares of Popular, Inc. $BPOP

Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its position in shares of Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) by 33.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 74,594 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,721 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC owned 0.11% of Popular worth $9,331,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Xponance LLC increased its stake in shares of Popular by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Xponance LLC now owns 3,892 shares of the bank’s stock worth $485,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Popular by 70.8% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 246 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in Popular by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 14,647 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,824,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Nebula Research & Development LLC grew its holdings in Popular by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC now owns 9,579 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,056,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP grew its holdings in Popular by 24.8% in the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 674 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $84,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. 87.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Popular news, Director Alejandro M. Ballester sold 23,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The shares were 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 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Maria Cristin Gonzalez-Noguera sold 6,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.51, for a total transaction of $920,762.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 11,255 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,671,480.05. This represents a 35.52% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 29,500 shares of company stock valued at $4,415,870 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 2.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on BPOP shares. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on Popular from $141.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Popular from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Popular from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Popular from $178.00 to $188.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Popular from $155.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $171.18.

Popular Price Performance

Shares of BPOP stock opened at $165.79 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $10.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.62. Popular, Inc. has a one year low of $108.74 and a one year high of $169.14. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $152.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $139.61.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The bank reported $3.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.30 by $0.48. Popular had a net margin of 20.10% and a return on equity of 14.53%. The firm had revenue of $816.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $866.54 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.56 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Popular, Inc. will post 15.14 EPS for the current year.

Popular Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 29th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 29th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. Popular’s payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

About Popular

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.