Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Acquires 11,168 Shares of Popular, Inc. $BPOP

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,496,309 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,168 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned about 2.18% of Popular worth $164,908,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BPOP. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Popular by 10.5% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 87,106 shares of the bank’s stock worth $8,046,000 after acquiring an additional 8,262 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in Popular by 164.7% during the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 15,731 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,453,000 after purchasing an additional 9,788 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Popular by 47.3% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 188,960 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $20,818,000 after purchasing an additional 60,701 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC bought a new stake in Popular in the 2nd quarter valued at $905,000. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Popular in the 2nd quarter worth $224,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.27% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Gilberto Monzon sold 18,001 shares of Popular stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.47, for a total transaction of $2,240,584.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 24,773 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,083,495.31. This trade represents a 42.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.09% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Popular Trading Down 0.2%

NASDAQ BPOP opened at $115.44 on Monday. Popular, Inc. has a 1-year low of $78.23 and a 1-year high of $129.32. The company has a market capitalization of $7.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.22, a PEG ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 0.72. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $120.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $114.35.

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

Popular Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Popular’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.55%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BPOP. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Popular from $133.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Popular from $135.00 to $127.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Hovde Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Popular in a report on Friday, August 29th. Zacks Research upgraded Popular from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Popular from $150.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $133.56.

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.