BPOP - Popular stock trades in green on growing Q4 net income

Popular ([[BPOP]] +6.3%) trades high after posting Q4 results with net income of $176.3M vs. $168.4M in Q3 and $166.8M in year ago quarter.Net interest income increased by $10.6M Q/Q to $471.6M (vs. $467.4M in year ago quarter), although net interest margin declined by 2 basis points to 3.04% due to an increase in lower yielding assets.The net interest margin continues to reflect the increase in investments in overnight Fed Funds, U.S. Treasury and U.S. Agency debt securities as well as an average balance of $1.4B loans issued post the U.S. SBA PPP, which are all lower yielding assets.During Q4, the bank recorded a total pre-tax charge of ~$23.2M related to the branch realignment.Non-performing assets dipped by $15M Q/Q while non-performing loans increased by $3M Q/Q.The company increased quarterly common stock dividend to $0.40/share and it returned $500M to shareholders through Accelerated Share Repurchase program.During 2021, Popular expects to incur an additional $2M in

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Popular stock trades in green on growing Q4 net income