Lidio Soriano Sells 3,000 Shares of Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) Stock

Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) EVP Lidio Soriano sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.50, for a total transaction of $523,500.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 107,320 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,727,340. The trade was a 2.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Popular Stock Performance

Shares of BPOP stock opened at $176.18 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $11.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.90, a P/E/G ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 0.61. Popular, Inc. has a 52 week low of $108.74 and a 52 week high of $179.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $167.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $150.48.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The bank reported $4.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.72 by $0.63. Popular had a net margin of 21.37% and a return on equity of 15.47%. The firm had revenue of $846.92 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $878.41 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.09 EPS. Analysts forecast that Popular, Inc. will post 15.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its position in shares of Popular by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 187,671 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $23,369,000 after acquiring an additional 17,148 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Popular by 4.8% in 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. Artemis Investment Management LLP purchased a new position in shares of Popular during the 4th quarter valued at $2,038,000. UBS Group AG increased its holdings in shares of Popular by 28.1% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 540,646 shares of the bank’s stock worth $67,321,000 after purchasing an additional 118,496 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Popular during the fourth quarter valued at $104,955,000. Institutional investors own 87.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on BPOP shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Popular from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Benchmark upped their price objective on shares of Popular from $201.00 to $214.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Popular from $163.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $198.00 price target (up from $190.00) on shares of Popular in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Popular from $178.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $186.92.

Popular Company 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.