AQR Capital Management LLC Purchases 24,842 Shares of Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP)

AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP - Free Report) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 937,274 shares of the bank's stock after buying an additional 24,842 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC owned 1.31% of Popular worth $88,160,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Popular during the 4th quarter valued at $79,842,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Popular by 57.1% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,418,729 shares of the bank's stock worth $133,446,000 after purchasing an additional 515,798 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Popular by 53.8% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,312,952 shares of the bank's stock worth $123,496,000 after purchasing an additional 459,231 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Popular by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,192,769 shares of the bank's stock valued at $394,373,000 after buying an additional 201,067 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia bought a new position in Popular in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $11,990,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.27% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Gilberto Monzon sold 9,600 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.57, for a total transaction of $984,672.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 39,170 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,017,666.90. This represents a 19.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 2.09% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Hovde Group reduced their target price on shares of Popular from $118.00 to $114.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Popular from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Popular from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com downgraded Popular from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised Popular from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $110.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $111.14.

Popular Stock Performance

Shares of BPOP stock traded up $2.86 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $99.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 469,306 shares, compared to its average volume of 491,186. The company has a market cap of $6.91 billion, a PE ratio of 11.64, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.62. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $90.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $95.18. Popular, Inc. has a 52 week low of $78.23 and a 52 week high of $106.81.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The bank reported $2.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.26 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $755.46 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $760.45 million. Popular had a return on equity of 11.89% and a net margin of 14.15%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.43 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Popular, Inc. will post 10.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Popular Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 18th. Popular's dividend payout ratio is presently 28.90%.

Popular Profile

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.