Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Short Interest Down 16.3% in April

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 27,970,000 shares, a decrease of 16.3% from the March 31st total of 33,430,000 shares. Currently, 5.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 9,550,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VLY has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Valley National Bancorp from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, April 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.50 to $11.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Valley National Bancorp from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $11.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $10.67.

Valley National Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of VLY traded up $0.23 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $8.91. The stock had a trading volume of 4,060,993 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,153,767. The company has a market capitalization of $4.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.91 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. Valley National Bancorp has a 12-month low of $6.47 and a 12-month high of $11.10. The company's 50-day moving average is $8.64 and its 200 day moving average is $9.41.

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

Valley National Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Valley National Bancorp's payout ratio is presently 63.77%.

Institutional Trading of Valley National Bancorp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VLY. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 50,002,161 shares of the company's stock worth $453,020,000 after buying an additional 4,204,651 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 28,663,209 shares of the company's stock valued at $259,692,000 after buying an additional 2,810,005 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Valley National Bancorp by 90.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,059,328 shares of the company's stock worth $154,558,000 after buying an additional 8,088,466 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,821,134 shares of the company's stock valued at $107,122,000 after purchasing an additional 656,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in Valley National Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at about $74,558,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.00% of the company's stock.

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.