Popular, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.70 (NASDAQ:BPOP)

Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.70 per share by the bank on Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.79%.

Popular has increased its dividend by an average of 13.5% annually over the last three years. Popular has a dividend payout ratio of 23.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Popular to earn $11.73 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.9%.

Popular Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of BPOP stock traded down $0.05 on Wednesday, reaching $100.32. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 78,232 shares, compared to its average volume of 448,727. Popular has a 1 year low of $80.60 and a 1 year high of $106.81. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $98.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $97.90. The company has a market capitalization of $7.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.82.

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.47. Popular had a net margin of 14.15% and a return on equity of 11.89%. Equities research analysts forecast that Popular will post 10.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com raised Popular from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Popular from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Popular from $116.00 to $129.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Popular from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, UBS Group started coverage on shares of Popular in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $104.00 price objective for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.25.

Insider Activity at Popular

In other news, EVP Gilberto Monzon sold 9,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 6th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,017,666.90. This represents a 19.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Eduardo J. Negron sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.02, for a total transaction of $1,040,200.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 32,866 shares in the company, valued at $3,418,721.32. This trade represents a 23.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.