Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Decreases Stock Position in Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky decreased its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 138,577 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,280 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Valley National Bancorp were worth $1,256,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 241.1% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 84,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $764,000 after buying an additional 59,641 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its position in Valley National Bancorp by 18.2% in the fourth quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 538,071 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,875,000 after acquiring an additional 82,976 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Valley National Bancorp by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 28,663,209 shares of the company’s stock worth $259,692,000 after acquiring an additional 2,810,005 shares in the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co increased its stake in Valley National Bancorp by 25.1% during the fourth quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 363,882 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,289,000 after acquiring an additional 72,945 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farringdon Capital Ltd. purchased a new stake in Valley National Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $338,000. 61.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VLY. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Valley National Bancorp from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Valley National Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.50 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $12.50 target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.67.

Valley National Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VLY opened at $8.59 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $8.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. Valley National Bancorp has a one year low of $6.47 and a one year high of $11.10. The firm has a market cap of $4.81 billion, a PE ratio of 12.45 and a beta of 1.06.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $479.67 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $483.98 million. Valley National Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.14% and a net margin of 10.62%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.99 EPS for the current year.

Valley National Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.12%. Valley National Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 63.77%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Valley National Bancorp news, EVP Joseph Chillura sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.21, for a total transaction of $510,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 495,249 shares in the company, valued at $5,056,492.29. This represents a 9.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.43% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.