Popular, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.75 (NASDAQ:BPOP)

Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 18th will be given a dividend of 0.75 per share by the bank on Wednesday, April 1st. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 18th.

Popular has increased its dividend by an average of 0.1%annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 6 consecutive years. Popular has a dividend payout ratio of 24.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Popular to earn $11.73 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.6%.

Popular Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BPOP traded down $9.65 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $132.87. The company had a trading volume of 232,294 shares, compared to its average volume of 573,370. The company has a market capitalization of $8.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.78, a PEG ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.63. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $133.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $124.43. Popular has a 12-month low of $78.23 and a 12-month high of $149.31.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 27th. The bank reported $3.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.02 by $0.36. The firm had revenue of $806.59 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $811.55 million. Popular had a net margin of 18.75% and a return on equity of 13.87%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.51 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Popular will post 10.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Alejandro M. Ballester sold 2,360 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, 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. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 2.09% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Popular

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BPOP. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Popular by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,489,936 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,057,167,000 after purchasing an additional 37,424 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Popular by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,361,681 shares of the bank’s stock worth $543,117,000 after buying an additional 58,452 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Popular by 56.2% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,962,871 shares of the bank’s stock worth $376,314,000 after buying an additional 1,065,452 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Popular by 18.9% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,779,309 shares of the bank’s stock worth $225,990,000 after buying an additional 283,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Popular by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,405,575 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $175,057,000 after acquiring an additional 64,778 shares during the period. 87.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.