Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $10.00.

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $11.00 to $8.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. TheStreet lowered shares of Valley National Bancorp from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. StockNews.com lowered Valley National Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Barclays started coverage on Valley National Bancorp in a research note on Friday, March 8th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $8.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Valley National Bancorp from $8.50 to $9.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Valley National Bancorp

In related news, EVP Joseph Chillura sold 49,715 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.18, for a total value of $406,668.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 545,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,460,136.82. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Valley National Bancorp

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Trexquant Investment LP increased its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 111.5% in the third quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 70,824 shares of the company’s stock valued at $606,000 after purchasing an additional 37,331 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 107.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,443,543 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,037,000 after acquiring an additional 2,301,128 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 155.7% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 308,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,642,000 after acquiring an additional 187,917 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 10.6% in the third quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,455,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,457,000 after purchasing an additional 138,906 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Valley National Bancorp by 0.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,427,144 shares of the company’s stock worth $388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 356,880 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.00% of the company’s stock.

Valley National Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of VLY opened at $7.96 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.05 billion, a PE ratio of 8.38 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $8.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $8.95. Valley National Bancorp has a 1-year low of $6.39 and a 1-year high of $11.22.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.03). Valley National Bancorp had a net margin of 14.82% and a return on equity of 8.67%. The firm had revenue of $449.97 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $467.49 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.98 EPS for the current year.

Valley National Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th will be issued a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 13th. Valley National Bancorp’s payout ratio is 46.32%.

About Valley National Bancorp

Valley National Bancorp operates as the holding company for Valley National Bank that provides various commercial, private banking, retail, insurance, and wealth management financial services products. It operates through Consumer Banking, Commercial Banking, and Treasury and Corporate other segments.