Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $10.39.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on VLY. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Citigroup reduced their target price on Valley National Bancorp from $10.50 to $10.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Valley National Bancorp from $11.50 to $10.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $10.00 price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped 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.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Valley National Bancorp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 67,976 shares of the company’s stock worth $616,000 after purchasing an additional 5,503 shares during the period. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 24.8% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 18,035 shares of the company’s stock worth $163,000 after purchasing an additional 3,585 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 22.4% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 56,228 shares of the company’s stock worth $509,000 after purchasing an additional 10,300 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 35,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $323,000 after purchasing an additional 5,181 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 41.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,494,390 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,539,000 after purchasing an additional 439,831 shares during the period. 61.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Valley National Bancorp Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of VLY stock opened at $9.80 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. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $9.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.02. Valley National Bancorp has a 12-month low of $6.47 and a 12-month high of $11.10. The firm has a market cap of $4.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.81 and a beta of 1.12.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting 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 company had revenue of $921.22 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $467.87 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Valley National Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.49%. Valley National Bancorp’s payout ratio is 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.