Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Raised to “Overweight” at Morgan Stanley

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) was upgraded by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $11.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $10.00. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 12.19% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the company. Truist Financial assumed coverage on Valley National Bancorp in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. They set a “hold” rating and a $10.00 price target for the company. Wall Street Zen cut Valley National Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 17th. Barclays lowered their price target on Valley National Bancorp from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Valley National Bancorp in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. They set a “hold” rating and a $10.00 price target for the company. Finally, Piper Sandler raised Valley National Bancorp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $11.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Valley National Bancorp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $10.64.

Valley National Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VLY opened at $9.81 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.49 billion, a PE ratio of 14.21 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $8.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.07. Valley National Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $6.56 and a fifty-two week high of $11.10.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $479.67 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $483.98 million. Valley National Bancorp had a net margin of 11.03% and a return on equity of 5.12%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.19 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Valley National Bancorp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 14.9% in the 1st quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 643,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,724,000 after purchasing an additional 83,573 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio acquired a new position in Valley National Bancorp in the 1st quarter worth about $420,000. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 40.7% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 502,987 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,472,000 after purchasing an additional 145,549 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth increased its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 34.9% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 60,868 shares of the company’s stock worth $541,000 after purchasing an additional 15,761 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd increased its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 870.4% in the 1st quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 60,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $533,000 after purchasing an additional 53,817 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.