Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Purchases New Stake in Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 586,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,366,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of VLY. Quarry LP raised its stake in Valley National Bancorp by 198.1% during the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 3,070 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 2,040 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Valley National Bancorp by 46.3% during the fourth quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 1,631 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in Valley National Bancorp by 73.0% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 6,213 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 2,622 shares in the last quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC raised its stake in Valley National Bancorp by 24.4% during the first quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 8,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 1,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning raised its stake in Valley National Bancorp by 6,274.7% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 10,072 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,000 after acquiring an additional 9,914 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on VLY shares. Wedbush lowered their target price on Valley National Bancorp from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Valley National Bancorp from $8.50 to $9.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Valley National Bancorp from $11.00 to $8.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. StockNews.com downgraded Valley National Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Valley National Bancorp from $12.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Valley National Bancorp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $9.67.

Insider Activity at Valley National Bancorp

In related news, EVP Joseph Chillura sold 49,715 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.18, for a total value of $406,668.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 545,249 shares in the company, valued at $4,460,136.82. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Valley National Bancorp Trading Up 4.4 %

VLY stock traded up $0.32 during trading on Friday, hitting $7.63. The company had a trading volume of 3,775,562 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,073,274. The business has a 50-day moving average of $7.91 and a 200-day moving average of $8.83. Valley National Bancorp has a one year low of $6.39 and a one year high of $11.22. The stock has a market cap of $3.88 billion, a PE ratio of 7.69 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.03). Valley National Bancorp had a net margin of 14.82% and a return on equity of 8.67%. The company had revenue of $449.97 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $467.49 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Valley National Bancorp will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Valley National Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.77%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Valley National Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 46.32%.

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.