Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the eleven research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $10.55.

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on VLY. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Valley National Bancorp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $11.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. They set a “hold” rating and a $10.00 price objective on the stock. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Valley National Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 17th. Finally, Truist Financial began 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.

Valley National Bancorp Price Performance

NASDAQ:VLY opened at $8.70 on Wednesday. Valley National Bancorp has a 52-week low of $6.47 and a 52-week high of $11.10. The company has a market cap of $4.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.61 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $8.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.36.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.01). Valley National Bancorp had a net margin of 10.62% and a return on equity of 5.14%. The company had revenue of $479.67 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $483.98 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.19 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Valley National Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.06%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. Valley National Bancorp’s payout ratio is 63.77%.

Institutional Trading of Valley National Bancorp

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VLY. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 50,002,161 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,020,000 after purchasing an additional 4,204,651 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 4.8% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 30,040,885 shares of the company’s stock worth $267,054,000 after purchasing an additional 1,377,676 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 90.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,059,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,558,000 after buying an additional 8,088,466 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,821,134 shares of the company’s stock valued at $107,122,000 after buying an additional 656,200 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Valley National Bancorp by 101.5% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 10,218,329 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,308,000 after buying an additional 5,147,786 shares in the last quarter. 61.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.