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

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders acquired 27,408 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 183% compared to the typical daily volume of 9,683 put options.

Valley National Bancorp Stock Down 5.8 %

NASDAQ VLY opened at $7.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.00. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.81. Valley National Bancorp has a twelve month low of $6.39 and a twelve month high of $11.22. The stock has a market cap of $3.73 billion, a PE ratio of 8.61 and a beta of 1.09.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $890.07 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $447.38 million. Valley National Bancorp had a return on equity of 7.74% and a net margin of 12.88%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.30 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.93 EPS for the current year.

Valley National Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. Valley National Bancorp’s payout ratio is 51.76%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Valley National Bancorp news, EVP Joseph Chillura sold 49,715 shares of Valley National Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.18, for a total transaction of $406,668.70. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 545,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,460,136.82. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Valley National Bancorp

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,625,380 shares of the company’s stock worth $495,492,000 after buying an additional 198,236 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 24,889,858 shares of the company’s stock valued at $270,309,000 after purchasing an additional 1,257,800 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 7.6% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 13,025,530 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,499,000 after purchasing an additional 920,140 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,294,793 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,361,000 after purchasing an additional 259,796 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,093,370 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,314,000 after purchasing an additional 161,121 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on VLY shares. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $8.50 to $9.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $11.00 to $8.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a report on Friday, March 8th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $8.00 price target for the company. Finally, TheStreet cut shares of Valley National Bancorp from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $9.33.

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.