Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Short Interest Update

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 33,430,000 shares, a growth of 20.3% from the March 15th total of 27,780,000 shares. Currently, 6.7% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 9,320,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.6 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Joseph Chillura sold 50,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.21, for a total value of $510,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 495,249 shares in the company, valued at $5,056,492.29. This represents a 9.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.43% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Valley National Bancorp

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on VLY. Stephens reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $12.50 price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Valley National Bancorp from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. StockNews.com downgraded Valley National Bancorp from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, April 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised Valley National Bancorp from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $11.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $10.67.

Valley National Bancorp Price Performance

Valley National Bancorp stock traded down $0.14 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $8.59. 7,483,777 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,115,949. The company's fifty day moving average is $8.79 and its 200-day moving average is $9.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. Valley National Bancorp has a 52 week low of $6.47 and a 52 week high of $11.10. The firm has a market cap of $4.81 billion, a PE ratio of 12.45 and a beta of 1.06.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $479.67 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $483.98 million. Valley National Bancorp had a net margin of 10.62% and a return on equity of 5.14%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.99 EPS for the current year.

Valley National Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.12%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Valley National Bancorp's payout ratio is 63.77%.

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.