Barclays Upgrades Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) to “Equal Weight”

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) was upgraded by equities researchers at Barclays from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, FinViz reports. The firm currently has a $10.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $9.00. Barclays‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 3.20% from the stock’s current price.

VLY has been the subject of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Valley National Bancorp from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com lowered Valley National Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Valley National Bancorp from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Valley National Bancorp from $8.00 to $8.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $9.75.

Valley National Bancorp Trading Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ:VLY opened at $9.69 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Valley National Bancorp has a 1-year low of $6.47 and a 1-year high of $11.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.63 and a beta of 1.08. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.94.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18. Valley National Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.87% and a net margin of 9.42%. The firm had revenue of $921.22 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $467.87 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Valley National Bancorp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State of Michigan Retirement System grew its stake in Valley National Bancorp by 2.4% in the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 104,781 shares of the company’s stock valued at $834,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its stake in Valley National Bancorp by 0.3% in the first quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 535,546 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,263,000 after acquiring an additional 1,435 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 378.4% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 612,314 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,874,000 after buying an additional 484,332 shares during the period. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Valley National Bancorp during the first quarter worth about $160,000. Finally, Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 1.3% during the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 373,248 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,971,000 after buying an additional 4,853 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 61.00% of the company’s stock.

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.