CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co Boosts Stake in Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY)

CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY - Free Report) by 25.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 363,882 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 72,945 shares during the quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co owned approximately 0.07% of Valley National Bancorp worth $3,289,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VLY. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co bought a new position in shares of Valley National Bancorp in the 3rd quarter worth about $154,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 41.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,494,390 shares of the company's stock valued at $13,539,000 after purchasing an additional 439,831 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $323,000 after purchasing an additional 5,181 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 22.4% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 56,228 shares of the company's stock valued at $509,000 after purchasing an additional 10,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 24.8% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 18,035 shares of the company's stock worth $163,000 after purchasing an additional 3,585 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on VLY. Piper Sandler raised Valley National Bancorp from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $11.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Stephens reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $12.50 target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Valley National Bancorp from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, April 26th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $10.67.

Valley National Bancorp Stock Performance

VLY stock traded up $0.13 on Thursday, hitting $8.73. The company had a trading volume of 1,191,178 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,098,158. The stock has a market cap of $4.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.67 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $8.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.42. Valley National Bancorp has a 12-month low of $6.47 and a 12-month high of $11.10.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.01). Valley National Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.14% and a net margin of 10.62%. The firm had revenue of $479.67 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $483.98 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.19 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Valley National Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Valley National Bancorp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.77%.

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.