Founders Financial Alliance LLC Makes New Investment in Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY)

Founders Financial Alliance LLC acquired a new position in shares of Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 21,271 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,625,380 shares of the company’s stock valued at $495,492,000 after purchasing an additional 198,236 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 25,722,816 shares of the company’s stock valued at $179,537,000 after purchasing an additional 337,416 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 193.2% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 10,173,791 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,233,000 after purchasing an additional 6,703,552 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,814,048 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,561,000 after purchasing an additional 160,854 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in Valley National Bancorp by 995.0% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,775,698 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,374,000 after buying an additional 2,522,204 shares during the period. 61.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $8.00 to $8.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $8.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Valley National Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $8.63.

Valley National Bancorp Stock Down 4.0 %

VLY stock opened at $8.70 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company’s 50 day moving average is $8.38 and its 200 day moving average is $7.72. The stock has a market cap of $4.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.24 and a beta of 1.08. Valley National Bancorp has a 1-year low of $6.47 and a 1-year high of $11.22.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $884.68 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $458.67 million. Valley National Bancorp had a return on equity of 6.53% and a net margin of 10.79%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Valley National Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.06%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Valley National Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.76%.

Valley National Bancorp 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.