Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY)

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders bought 9,350 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 63% compared to the average volume of 5,749 put options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VLY has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush lowered their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 26th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Valley National Bancorp from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $8.50 to $9.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $13.00 to $12.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a report on Friday, December 1st. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $9.50 price target on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Valley National Bancorp has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $10.33.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its stake in Valley National Bancorp by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 14,630 shares of the company's stock valued at $158,000 after purchasing an additional 818 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in Valley National Bancorp by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 111,227 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,201,000 after purchasing an additional 978 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in Valley National Bancorp by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 47,828 shares of the company's stock valued at $630,000 after purchasing an additional 989 shares during the period. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY raised its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY now owns 26,971 shares of the company's stock worth $305,000 after buying an additional 996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 144,288 shares of the company's stock worth $1,632,000 after buying an additional 1,063 shares in the last quarter. 60.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Valley National Bancorp Trading Down 3.4 %

Shares of Valley National Bancorp stock traded down $0.27 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $7.75. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,308,068 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,727,092. Valley National Bancorp has a 1-year low of $6.39 and a 1-year high of $11.51. The business has a fifty day moving average of $9.59 and a 200 day moving average of $9.11. The company has a market capitalization of $3.93 billion, a PE ratio of 8.42 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $449.97 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $467.49 million. Valley National Bancorp had a net margin of 14.82% and a return on equity of 8.67%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.99 EPS for the current year.

Valley National Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.68%. Valley National Bancorp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.32%.

About Valley National Bancorp

Valley National Bancorp operates as the holding company for Valley National Bank that provides various commercial, retail, insurance, and wealth management financial services products. It operates through Consumer Banking, Commercial Banking, and Treasury and Corporate other segments. The company offers non-interest bearing, savings, NOW, money market, and time deposit accounts; commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, residential mortgage, and automobile loans; loans secured by the cash surrender value of life insurance; home equity loans and lines of credit; and secured and unsecured other consumer loans.

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