Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Buys 18,900 Shares of Popular, Inc. $BPOP

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its position in Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) by 43.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 62,100 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,900 shares during the quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Popular were worth $8,332,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Popular by 30.5% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 321 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Xponance LLC boosted its position in shares of Popular by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Xponance LLC now owns 3,892 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $485,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL boosted its position in shares of Popular by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 7,262 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $974,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Severin Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Popular by 1.9% in the first quarter. Severin Investments LLC now owns 4,799 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $644,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Popular by 1.7% in the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,693 shares of the bank’s stock worth $764,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. 87.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Popular

In other 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 value of $3,450,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 34,588 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,188,200. This trade represents a 39.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Maria Cristin Gonzalez-Noguera sold 6,200 shares of Popular 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 directly owned 11,255 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,671,480.05. This represents a 35.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 29,500 shares of company stock worth $4,415,870. 2.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BPOP. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Popular from $178.00 to $188.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Popular from $163.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Popular from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Popular from $190.00 to $207.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Popular from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Popular currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $184.42.

Popular Stock Performance

NASDAQ BPOP opened at $174.16 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $161.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $146.79. Popular, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $108.74 and a fifty-two week high of $175.12. The company has a market cap of $11.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.77, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.61.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The bank reported $4.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.72 by $0.63. The company had revenue of $846.92 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $878.41 million. Popular had a return on equity of 15.47% and a net margin of 21.37%.During the same period last year, the company earned $3.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Popular, Inc. will post 15.55 EPS for the current year.

Popular Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 29th were paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 29th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Popular’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.27%.

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.