Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Stock Rated “Moderate Buy” by Sell-Side Analysts

Shares of Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $16.27.

VLY has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Valley National Bancorp from $17.00 to $15.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Weiss Ratings downgraded Valley National Bancorp from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, October 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on Valley National Bancorp from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, National Bank Financial set a $15.50 price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research note on Thursday, October 1st.

Valley National Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VLY opened at $12.48 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.74. Valley National Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $9.64 and a fifty-two week high of $15.20. The company has a market capitalization of $6.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.58 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $560.74 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $557.16 million. Valley National Bancorp had a return on equity of 9.13% and a net margin of 19.49%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.23 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Valley National Bancorp will post 1.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Valley National Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th were issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Valley National Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.29%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Valley National Bancorp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,079,026,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Valley National Bancorp by 29.5% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,091,604 shares of the company’s stock valued at $294,342,000 after purchasing an additional 4,576,448 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Valley National Bancorp by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,029,085 shares of the company’s stock valued at $152,200,000 after purchasing an additional 247,651 shares during the period. Azora Capital LP purchased a new stake in Valley National Bancorp in the second quarter worth approximately $150,121,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Valley National Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth approximately $71,554,000. 61.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Valley National Bancorp

Valley National Bancorp is the bank holding company for Valley National Bank, a regional financial institution headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey. Founded in 1927, the company provides banking and related financial services to individuals, businesses and institutions.

Valley National Bank offers a range of consumer and commercial products, including checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, residential and commercial real estate loans, commercial and industrial lending, consumer loans, mortgages and treasury management services.