Popular made $278.2 million in the three months ended June 30, up from $210.4 million a year earlier. Earnings per share grew faster, rising 40.8% to $4.35, as diluted shares fell 6.1% to 63.9 million.
The surface reading is straightforward: more profit, fewer shares, bigger per-share earnings. The less tidy detail is where the extra profit came from. Lower deposit costs and lower loan-loss provisions did much of the lifting, which makes the result sensitive to rates and credit assumptions.
Popular said one major benefit came from repricing deposits as short-term market rates declined:
"The increase also benefited from a $16.1 million, or 34 basis point, decrease in deposit interest expense, primarily due to repricing across most deposit products driven by a decline in short-term market rates; and provision for loan losses was $5.8 million, a decrease of $13.1 million."
Popular, Form 10-Q filed Aug. 7, 2026.
In plain English, the bank paid less for deposits and set aside less for loan losses. Those are meaningful changes, but neither is the same as adding $16.1 million of recurring fee revenue or $13.1 million of recurring operating income.
The credit side of the equation was especially important. Popular also described a $32.7 million decrease in provision expense for its consumer and mortgage loan segments, attributing it to improved consumer credit metrics, better macroeconomic assumptions, and higher net recoveries in mortgages.
Management’s rate explanation was not limited to one deposit category. It also cited a 61 basis point reduction in the cost of market-linked Puerto Rico public deposits, driven by the same decline in short-term market rates. The latest report therefore reads less like a single earnings lever and more like a bank benefiting across several funding lines from the rate backdrop.
There was operating activity underneath that. Other service fees increased by $8.3 million, including a $5.9 million rise in debit and credit card fees tied to higher transaction activity and purchase volumes. Asset management fees also rose with higher assets under management. The filing reports higher activity in those businesses, even as the biggest profit changes came from funding costs and provisions.
That distinction matters because Popular’s earnings per share did not rise only because net income increased. The diluted share count declined from 68.1 million to 63.9 million, so the larger profit pool was divided among fewer shares. The result was a 40.8% EPS increase against a 32.2% net-income increase.
The stock closed at $176.20 on Aug. 6, down 0.7% for the day. On Aug. 7, Popular was also among the most active names in a regional-bank group where 19 of 23 members crossed the activity threshold. That describes a busy trading backdrop, not a cause for Popular’s move.
Popular’s next quarterly report will give the cleanest comparison by showing whether the deposit-interest reduction and lower provision expense are still visible in the same three-month period. The unresolved tension is simple: Popular earned much more, but the filing ties much of that increase to rates and credit provisions.
Source: Popular, Inc., Form 10-Q filed Aug. 7, 2026, for the three months ended June 30, 2026.