Valley National Bancorp Earnings Preview

Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Valley National Bancorp (NYSE: VLY  ) will top analyst expectations for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Oct. 27. Valley National Bancorp is a bank holding company, which, through its subsidiary, Valley National Bank, provides a range of commercial, retail and trust, and investment services.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Valley National Bancorp, with six of nine analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Valley National Bancorp as much as competitor Susquehanna Bancshares overall. Ten out of 13 analysts rate Susquehanna Bancshares a buy compared to two out of nine for Valley National Bancorp. Valley National Bancorp's rating hasn't changed over the past three months.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $140.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 3.7% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.21 per share. Estimates range from $0.20 to $0.22.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 89.5% awarding it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 78.9% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about Valley National Bancorp, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 39 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Valley National Bancorp, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Valley National Bancorp's profit has risen year over year by an average of 16.9% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter	Q2	Q1	Q4	Q3
Net Margin	18.3%	17.1%	19%	17.4%

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