Valley National Bancorp (VLY) – What Are Investment Firms Saying About This Stock?

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eleven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $16.71.

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on VLY shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded Valley National Bancorp from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 16th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Valley National Bancorp from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $17.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Valley National Bancorp from $15.50 to $16.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Finally, National Bank Financial set a $18.50 target price on Valley National Bancorp in a research note on Monday, October 26th.

Valley National Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of VLY opened at $14.14 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $13.38 and a 200 day simple moving average of $13.44. Valley National Bancorp has a 12 month low of $10.34 and a 12 month high of $15.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.22 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.03. Valley National Bancorp had a return on equity of 9.63% and a net margin of 20.44%. The business had revenue of $581.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $577.82 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Valley National Bancorp will post 1.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Valley National Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 15th will be given a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 15th. Valley National Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.92%.

Institutional Trading of Valley National Bancorp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of VLY. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Valley National Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,079,026,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 29.5% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Azora Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of Valley National Bancorp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $150,121,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Valley National Bancorp in the second quarter valued at approximately $88,872,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Valley National Bancorp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $68,276,000. 61.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Valley National Bancorp Company Profile

Valley National Bancorp is the bank holding company for Valley National Bank, a full-service regional bank headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey. The company provides banking and financial services to individuals, businesses, nonprofit organizations and government entities through a network of branches and digital banking channels.

Valley National Bank offers deposit accounts, residential and commercial real estate lending, business loans, consumer loans, mortgage banking, treasury management and other commercial banking services.