Valley National Bancorp (VLY) Competitors

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) and Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, community ranking, media sentiment and institutional ownership.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in VLY or SYF?

Synchrony Financial received 834 more outperform votes than Valley National Bancorp when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.29% of users gave Synchrony Financial an outperform vote while only 25.25% of users gave Valley National Bancorp an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Valley National Bancorp	Outperform Votes 25 25.25%	Underperform Votes 74 74.75%
Synchrony Financial	Outperform Votes 859 70.29%	Underperform Votes 363 29.71%

Is VLY or SYF a better dividend stock?

Valley National Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Synchrony Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Valley National Bancorp pays out 63.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Synchrony Financial pays out 11.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Which has better earnings & valuation, VLY or SYF?

Synchrony Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Valley National Bancorp. Synchrony Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Valley National Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Valley National Bancorp	$1.84B	2.47	$380.27M	$0.69	11.80
Synchrony Financial	$16.13B	1.15	$3.50B	$8.54	5.56

Which has more volatility and risk, VLY or SYF?

Valley National Bancorp has a beta of 1.06, meaning that its share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Synchrony Financial has a beta of 1.45, meaning that its share price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate VLY or SYF?

Valley National Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $10.67, indicating a potential upside of 31.04%. Synchrony Financial has a consensus price target of $65.11, indicating a potential upside of 37.02%. Given Synchrony Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Synchrony Financial is more favorable than Valley National Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Valley National Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.44
Synchrony Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.70

Is VLY or SYF more profitable?

Synchrony Financial has a net margin of 15.36% compared to Valley National Bancorp's net margin of 10.62%. Synchrony Financial's return on equity of 18.30% beat Valley National Bancorp's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Valley National Bancorp	10.62%	5.14%	0.55%
Synchrony Financial	15.36%	18.30%	2.23%

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in VLY or SYF?

61.0% of Valley National Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.5% of Synchrony Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.9% of Valley National Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Synchrony Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer VLY or SYF?

In the previous week, Synchrony Financial had 13 more articles in the media than Valley National Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for Synchrony Financial and 12 mentions for Valley National Bancorp. Synchrony Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.12 beat Valley National Bancorp's score of 0.82 indicating that Synchrony Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Valley National Bancorp	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Synchrony Financial	17 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Synchrony Financial beats Valley National Bancorp on 17 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.