Short Interest in Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) Declines By 17.1%

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY - Get Free Report) was the target of a large drop in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 25,720,000 shares, a drop of 17.1% from the November 30th total of 31,010,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 6,590,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.9 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Valley National Bancorp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 1.2% in the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 256,797 shares of the company's stock worth $1,792,000 after acquiring an additional 3,035 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp during the second quarter worth $509,000. Summit Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Valley National Bancorp during the second quarter worth $136,000. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 32.3% in the 2nd quarter. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. now owns 1,100,066 shares of the company's stock valued at $7,678,000 after acquiring an additional 268,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Valley National Bancorp by 22.6% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 13,708 shares of the company's stock valued at $96,000 after acquiring an additional 2,529 shares in the last quarter. 61.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on VLY shares. Wedbush reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $10.00 price objective on shares of Valley National Bancorp in a report on Friday, October 25th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Valley National Bancorp from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Valley National Bancorp from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $10.50 to $11.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Valley National Bancorp from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Valley National Bancorp currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $10.00.

Valley National Bancorp Stock Performance

VLY stock traded down $0.13 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $9.12. 5,257,986 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,140,509. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $8.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.71 and a beta of 1.09. Valley National Bancorp has a 12 month low of $6.47 and a 12 month high of $11.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.18. Valley National Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.87% and a net margin of 9.42%. The business had revenue of $921.22 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $467.87 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.26 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Valley National Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.82%. Valley National Bancorp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 70.97%.

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.