Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Shares Sold by Inspire Investing LLC

Inspire Investing LLC cut its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) by 10.0% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 45,601 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,083 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in Valley National Bancorp were worth $413,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VLY. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,625,380 shares of the company’s stock worth $495,492,000 after purchasing an additional 198,236 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 1.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 25,722,816 shares of the company’s stock valued at $179,537,000 after buying an additional 337,416 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 193.2% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 10,173,791 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,233,000 after acquiring an additional 6,703,552 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,814,048 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,561,000 after acquiring an additional 160,854 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 995.0% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,775,698 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,374,000 after acquiring an additional 2,522,204 shares during the period. 61.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on VLY shares. StockNews.com downgraded Valley National Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Wedbush increased their target price on Valley National Bancorp from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $8.00 to $8.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $8.88.

Valley National Bancorp Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ VLY opened at $9.51 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.84 billion, a PE ratio of 13.39 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Valley National Bancorp has a 12-month low of $6.47 and a 12-month high of $11.22. The company has a 50-day moving average of $8.63 and a 200 day moving average of $7.82.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $884.68 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $458.67 million. Valley National Bancorp had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 6.53%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Valley National Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.63%. Valley National Bancorp’s payout ratio is 61.97%.

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.