Short Interest in Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) Increases By 19.3%

Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 871,600 shares, an increase of 19.3% from the September 15th total of 730,800 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 420,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.1 days. Approximately 1.2% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Popular news, EVP Camille Burckhart sold 5,917 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.60, for a total transaction of $577,499.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 29,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,920,387.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 2.09% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Popular

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Popular by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,816,736 shares of the bank’s stock worth $313,240,000 after buying an additional 216,855 shares in the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Popular in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $289,000. CWM LLC raised its position in Popular by 164.8% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,769 shares of the bank’s stock worth $156,000 after purchasing an additional 1,101 shares during the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd lifted its holdings in Popular by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 114,237 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,960,000 after buying an additional 5,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital boosted its position in Popular by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 2,729 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $237,000 after buying an additional 171 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BPOP has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Popular from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Hovde Group lifted their price objective on Popular from $113.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on Popular in a research note on Monday, August 26th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $112.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Popular from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Popular from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Popular has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $110.38.

Popular Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BPOP traded up $1.40 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $101.96. 330,807 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 397,843. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $98.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $92.48. Popular has a 12 month low of $59.27 and a 12 month high of $105.01. The firm has a market cap of $7.37 billion, a PE ratio of 14.92, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 0.78.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $2.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.08 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $1.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $751.57 million. Popular had a net margin of 12.20% and a return on equity of 11.73%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.10 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Popular will post 8.74 EPS for the current year.

Popular Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.43%. Popular’s dividend payout ratio is 36.80%.

Popular Company 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.