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

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors acquired 3,000 put options on the company. This is an increase of 897% compared to the typical daily volume of 301 put options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Valley National Bancorp

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,079,026,000. Azora Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of Valley National Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $150,121,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Valley National Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $88,872,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Valley National Bancorp in the 2nd quarter valued at $68,276,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 29.5% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,091,604 shares of the company’s stock valued at $294,342,000 after purchasing an additional 4,576,448 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 research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays lifted their target price on Valley National Bancorp from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. National Bank Financial set a $15.50 price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $15.50 to $16.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $17.00 price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a report on Tuesday, September 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $16.00 to $16.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $16.27.

Valley National Bancorp Stock Performance

Valley National Bancorp stock traded up $0.07 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $12.70. 1,570,039 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,124,011. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $13.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.02 billion, a PE ratio of 10.76 and a beta of 1.07. Valley National Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $9.64 and a fifty-two week high of $15.20.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.01). Valley National Bancorp had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 9.13%. The firm had revenue of $560.74 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $557.16 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.23 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Valley National Bancorp will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Valley National Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th were paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 15th. Valley National Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 37.29%.

About Valley National Bancorp

Valley National Bancorp is the bank holding company for Valley National Bank, a regional financial institution headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey. Founded in 1927, the company provides banking and related financial services to individuals, businesses and institutions.

Valley National Bank offers a range of consumer and commercial products, including checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, residential and commercial real estate loans, commercial and industrial lending, consumer loans, mortgages and treasury management services.