Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $10.39.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $12.50 target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $10.00 price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a report on Friday, October 25th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Valley National Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.50 to $10.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 31st.

Institutional Trading of Valley National Bancorp

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of VLY. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 384.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,970,862 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,276,000 after acquiring an additional 7,118,044 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased 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 worth $69,233,000 after acquiring an additional 6,703,552 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 1,501.7% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,676,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,431,000 after purchasing an additional 5,322,278 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 995.0% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,775,698 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,374,000 after purchasing an additional 2,522,204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. purchased a new stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $19,399,000. 61.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Valley National Bancorp Price Performance

Valley National Bancorp stock opened at $9.55 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.40 and a beta of 1.12. Valley National Bancorp has a 52-week low of $6.47 and a 52-week high of $11.10. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $9.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $8.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.99.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.18. Valley National Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.87% and a net margin of 9.42%. The business had revenue of $921.22 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $467.87 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.26 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Valley National Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.61%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Valley National Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.97%.

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.