Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Stock Sees Unusually High Put Option Buying

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders acquired 3,000 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 897% compared to the typical daily volume of 301 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on VLY. Truist Financial upped their price target on Valley National Bancorp from $15.50 to $16.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $17.00 target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a report on Tuesday, September 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on Valley National Bancorp from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $16.00 to $16.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Valley National Bancorp from $17.00 to $15.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.27.

Institutional Trading of Valley National Bancorp

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VLY. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,919,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,133,000 after acquiring an additional 290,534 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Valley National Bancorp in the second quarter valued at $9,391,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Valley National Bancorp in the second quarter valued at $68,276,000. World Investment Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 141.7% in the 1st quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 199,243 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,447,000 after purchasing an additional 116,826 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 6.0% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,411,434 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,332,000 after buying an additional 80,308 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.00% of the company’s stock.

Valley National Bancorp Price Performance

Valley National Bancorp stock traded down $0.12 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $12.52. 1,697,426 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,110,567. Valley National Bancorp has a 1 year low of $9.64 and a 1 year high of $15.20. The company has a market capitalization of $6.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.61 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $13.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $13.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $560.74 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $557.16 million. Valley National Bancorp had a return on equity of 9.13% and a net margin of 19.49%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.23 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Valley National Bancorp will post 1.27 EPS for the current year.

Valley National Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th were paid a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Valley National Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is 37.29%.

About Valley National Bancorp

Valley National Bancorp is the bank holding company for Valley National Bank, a regional financial institution headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey. Founded in 1927, the company provides banking and related financial services to individuals, businesses and institutions.

Valley National Bank offers a range of consumer and commercial products, including checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, residential and commercial real estate loans, commercial and industrial lending, consumer loans, mortgages and treasury management services.