37,260 Shares in Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Purchased by Farringdon Capital Ltd.

Farringdon Capital Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 37,260 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $338,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VLY. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Valley National Bancorp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,490,000. Xponance Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 66,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $603,000 after purchasing an additional 8,032 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Valley National Bancorp by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 35,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $323,000 after buying an additional 5,181 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Valley National Bancorp by 27.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,101,280 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,278,000 after buying an additional 1,327,829 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 41.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,494,390 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,539,000 after buying an additional 439,831 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on VLY shares. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.50 to $11.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com lowered Valley National Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 12th. Finally, Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $12.50 target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.67.

Valley National Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of VLY opened at $8.25 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.96 and a beta of 1.06. Valley National Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $6.47 and a fifty-two week high of $11.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $8.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.44.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 5.14% and a net margin of 10.62%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.22 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Valley National Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Valley National Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.77%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Joseph Chillura sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 495,249 shares in the company, valued at $5,056,492.29. This trade represents a 9.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.88% of the company’s stock.

Valley National Bancorp 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.