Magnetar Financial LLC Makes New Investment in Popular, Inc. $BPOP

Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 69,174 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $7,624,000. Magnetar Financial LLC owned approximately 0.10% of Popular at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BPOP. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Popular by 1.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,569,149 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $329,674,000 after buying an additional 34,322 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Popular by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,940,484 shares of the bank’s stock worth $179,243,000 after acquiring an additional 32,078 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Popular by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,496,309 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $164,908,000 after purchasing an additional 11,168 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Popular by 52.8% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,432,599 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $129,722,000 after purchasing an additional 495,325 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Popular by 0.6% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,337,901 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $147,471,000 after purchasing an additional 7,500 shares during the period. 87.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Popular in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Popular from $135.00 to $127.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Popular in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $153.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Popular from $150.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Popular from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Popular currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $133.56.

Popular Trading Up 3.1%

Popular stock opened at $114.84 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $7.66 billion, a PE ratio of 10.16, a P/E/G ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 0.72. Popular, Inc. has a 12 month low of $78.23 and a 12 month high of $129.32. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $119.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $114.62.

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

Popular Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Popular’s dividend payout ratio is 26.55%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Gilberto Monzon sold 18,001 shares of the 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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 24,773 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,083,495.31. This represents a 42.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 2.09% of the stock is currently owned by 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.