Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Short Interest Update

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of 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 company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 9,550,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Valley National Bancorp Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of VLY stock traded down $0.13 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $8.66. The company had a trading volume of 4,013,004 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,144,309. The company has a 50 day moving average of $8.66 and a 200 day moving average of $9.41. The firm has a market cap of $4.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.65 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Valley National Bancorp has a 1-year low of $6.47 and a 1-year high of $11.10.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $479.67 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 period last year, the firm earned $0.19 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate 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 was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.08%. Valley National Bancorp's payout ratio is 63.77%.

Institutional Trading of Valley National Bancorp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Valley National Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth $31,490,000. Xponance Inc. raised its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 66,588 shares of the company's stock valued at $603,000 after purchasing an additional 8,032 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 35,600 shares of the company's stock valued at $323,000 after acquiring an additional 5,181 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Valley National Bancorp by 27.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,101,280 shares of the company's stock worth $55,278,000 after purchasing an additional 1,327,829 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 41.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,494,390 shares of the company's stock valued at $13,539,000 after acquiring an additional 439,831 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on VLY. StockNews.com raised shares of Valley National Bancorp from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, April 26th. 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 report on Friday, January 24th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.50 to $11.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $10.67.

About Valley National Bancorp

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.