Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Raised to “Overweight” at Piper Sandler

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) was upgraded by Piper Sandler from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $11.00 price objective on the stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 20.75% from the company’s current price.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on VLY. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $12.50 target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.50 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Citigroup increased their price target on Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Valley National Bancorp from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Valley National Bancorp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.78.

Valley National Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VLY opened at $9.11 on Monday. Valley National Bancorp has a 1 year low of $6.47 and a 1 year high of $11.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.20 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.50.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last issued its 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 10.62% and a return on equity of 5.14%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.22 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Joseph Chillura sold 50,000 shares of Valley National Bancorp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.21, for a total transaction of $510,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 495,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,056,492.29. This trade represents a 9.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Valley National Bancorp

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 lifted its stake 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 valued at $259,692,000 after buying an additional 2,810,005 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 90.2% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,059,328 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,558,000 after buying an additional 8,088,466 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,821,134 shares of the company’s stock worth $107,122,000 after buying an additional 656,200 shares during the period. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at $74,558,000. Institutional investors 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.