Yahoo Finance Does Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) Deserve A Spot On Your Watchlist?
For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it currently lacks a track record of revenue and profit. Unfortunately, these high risk investments often have little probability of ever paying off, and many investors pay a price to learn their lesson. A loss-making company is yet to prove itself with profit, and eventually the inflow of external capital may dry up.
In contrast to all that, many investors prefer to focus on companies like Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP), which has not only revenues, but also profits. While profit isn't the sole metric that should be considered when investing, it's worth recognising businesses that can consistently produce it.
Check out our latest analysis for Popular
How Quickly Is Popular Increasing Earnings Per Share?
If you believe that markets are even vaguely efficient, then over the long term you'd expect a company's share price to follow its earnings per share (EPS) outcomes. That makes EPS growth an attractive quality for any company. It certainly is nice to see that Popular has managed to grow EPS by 27% per year over three years. As a general rule, we'd say that if a company can keep up that sort of growth, shareholders will be beaming.
Careful consideration of revenue growth and earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margins can help inform a view on the sustainability of the recent profit growth. It's noted that Popular's revenue from operations was lower than its revenue in the last twelve months, so that could distort our analysis of its margins. Popular maintained stable EBIT margins over the last year, all while growing revenue 8.9% to US$2.8b. That's encouraging news for the company!
In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings and revenue, over time. For finer detail, click on the image.
The trick, as an investor, is to find companies that are going to perform well in the future, not just in the past. While crystal balls don't exist, you can check our visualization of consensus analyst forecasts for Popular's future EPS 100% free.
Are Popular Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?
Owing to the size of Popular, we wouldn't expect insiders to hold a significant proportion of the company. But we are reassured by the fact they have invested in the company. We note that their impressive stake in the company is worth US$101m. Investors will appreciate management having this amount of skin in the game as it shows their commitment to the company's future.
While it's always good to see some strong conviction in the company from insiders through heavy investment, it's also important for shareholders to ask if management compensation policies are reasonable. Well, based on the CEO pay, you'd argue that they are indeed. Our analysis has discovered that the median total compensation for the CEOs of companies like Popular with market caps between US$4.0b and US$12b is about US$8.4m.
Popular offered total compensation worth US$5.1m to its CEO in the year to December 2021. That is actually below the median for CEO's of similarly sized companies. CEO remuneration levels are not the most important metric for investors, but when the pay is modest, that does support enhanced alignment between the CEO and the ordinary shareholders. It can also be a sign of good governance, more generally.
Does Popular Deserve A Spot On Your Watchlist?
If you believe that share price follows earnings per share you should definitely be delving further into Popular's strong EPS growth. If you still have your doubts, remember too that company insiders have a considerable investment aligning themselves with the shareholders and CEO pay is quite modest compared to similarly sized companiess. Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to investing but it definitely makes Popular look rather interesting indeed. You should always think about risks though. Case in point, we've spotted 3 warning signs for Popular you should be aware of, and 1 of them is potentially serious.
Although Popular certainly looks good, it may appeal to more investors if insiders were buying up shares. If you like to see insider buying, then this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying, could be exactly what you're looking for.
Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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