Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Cuts Stake in Popular, Inc. $BPOP

Key Points

• Massachusetts Financial Services trimmed its stake in Popular, Inc. by 12.7% in the 4th quarter, selling 225,693 shares and ending the period with 1,553,616 shares (about a 2.33% stake) valued at roughly $193.5 million.
• Wall Street is largely bullish: 11 analysts rate BPOP a Buy and one a Hold, with a consensus target price of $161.18 after multiple recent upgrades and target increases.
• Popular reported a quarterly EPS beat ($3.38 vs. $3.02 expected) and declared a $0.75 quarterly dividend (annualized $3.00, ~2.1% yield), while its market metrics include a market cap of $9.41B and a P/E of 11.75.

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA cut its stake in Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP - Free Report) by 12.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,553,616 shares of the bank's stock after selling 225,693 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned about 2.33% of Popular worth $193,456,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC raised its position in Popular by 140.1% in the third quarter. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC now owns 45,170 shares of the bank's stock valued at $5,737,000 after purchasing an additional 26,354 shares during the period. Ceeto Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in Popular in the third quarter valued at about $29,115,000. Savant Capital LLC raised its position in Popular by 68.6% in the third quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 17,309 shares of the bank's stock valued at $2,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,043 shares during the period. Ethic Inc. purchased a new position in Popular in the third quarter valued at about $653,000. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in shares of Popular by 13.4% during the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 77,807 shares of the bank's stock worth $9,882,000 after acquiring an additional 9,180 shares during the last quarter. 87.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on BPOP shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Popular in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Citigroup lifted their target price on Popular from $161.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. UBS Group raised Popular from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $142.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Popular from $146.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Popular from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $161.18.

Popular Price Performance

Shares of BPOP stock opened at $144.82 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $137.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $126.87. Popular, Inc. has a 52 week low of $80.00 and a 52 week high of $149.31. The company has a market cap of $9.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.75, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.59.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The bank reported $3.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.02 by $0.36. Popular had a return on equity of 13.70% and a net margin of 18.75%.The company had revenue of $806.59 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $811.55 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.51 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Popular, Inc. will post 10.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Popular Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 18th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 18th. Popular's payout ratio is 24.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Alejandro M. Sanchez sold 1,451 shares of Popular stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.85, for a total transaction of $204,373.35. Following the sale, the director owned 3,415 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $481,002.75. The trade was a 29.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Alejandro M. Ballester sold 2,360 shares of Popular stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.50, for a total value of $312,700.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 57,449 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,611,992.50. This trade represents a 3.95% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 2.13% of the company's stock.

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.

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