Valley National Bancorp Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:VLY)

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Friday. Traders acquired 11,161 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 406% compared to the typical volume of 2,204 call options.

Institutional Trading of Valley National Bancorp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of VLY. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Valley National Bancorp during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 48.2% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,809 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 1,564 shares during the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 416.8% during the 3rd quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 46.4% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,791 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 2,151 shares during the last quarter. 61.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on VLY shares. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $12.50 price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Valley National Bancorp from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com downgraded Valley National Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on Valley National Bancorp from $10.50 to $10.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $10.39.

Valley National Bancorp Stock Up 3.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ VLY traded up $0.39 on Friday, hitting $10.17. The company had a trading volume of 3,532,024 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,236,984. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.41 and a beta of 1.12. 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 12-month low of $6.47 and a 12-month high of $11.10. The business has a 50 day moving average of $9.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.02.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.02). Valley National Bancorp had a net margin of 9.42% and a return on equity of 5.87%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.22 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Valley National Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.33%. Valley National Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.97%.

Valley National Bancorp Company Profile

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.