Valley National Bancorp Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:VLY)

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors bought 11,161 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 406% compared to the average daily volume of 2,204 call options.

Valley National Bancorp Trading Up 4.0 %

Shares of VLY stock opened at $10.17 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.40 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Valley National Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $6.47 and a fifty-two week high of $11.10. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $9.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.06.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.02). Valley National Bancorp had a net margin of 9.42% and a return on equity of 5.87%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.22 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.64 EPS for the current year.

Valley National Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.33%. Valley National Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 70.97%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp in the third quarter worth $515,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 35,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $323,000 after buying an additional 5,181 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 332.7% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 163,478 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,481,000 after buying an additional 125,695 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake 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 worth $13,539,000 after buying an additional 439,831 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 66.1% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 217,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,969,000 after buying an additional 86,473 shares during the last quarter. 61.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on VLY shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $12.50 target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $10.00 target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.50 to $10.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $10.56.

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.