Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Invests $6.37 Million in Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 586,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,366,000. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC owned about 0.12% of Valley National Bancorp as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp during the 1st quarter worth about $276,000. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 179.4% during the 1st quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 34,453 shares of the company’s stock worth $450,000 after buying an additional 22,120 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC raised its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 29.2% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 37,654 shares of the company’s stock worth $490,000 after buying an additional 8,514 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 16.2% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 35,562 shares of the company’s stock worth $463,000 after buying an additional 4,951 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp during the 1st quarter worth about $207,000. 61.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Valley National Bancorp

In related news, EVP Joseph Chillura sold 49,715 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.18, for a total transaction of $406,668.70. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 545,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,460,136.82. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.88% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on VLY. Wedbush dropped their price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 26th. TheStreet cut shares of Valley National Bancorp from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. StockNews.com cut shares of Valley National Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $13.00 to $12.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research note on Friday, March 8th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $8.00 price objective on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $9.67.

Valley National Bancorp Trading Up 4.4 %

Shares of Valley National Bancorp stock traded up $0.32 during trading on Friday, hitting $7.63. The stock had a trading volume of 3,775,562 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,073,274. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.83. The company has a market capitalization of $3.88 billion, a PE ratio of 7.69 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $449.97 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $467.49 million. Valley National Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.67% and a net margin of 14.82%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.35 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Valley National Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. Valley National Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 46.32%.

Valley National Bancorp Company Profile

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.