J.P. Morgan Maintains Underweight on Valley National Bancorp (VLY)

J.P. Morgan is out with its report today on Valley National Bancorp VLY, maintaining Underweight and a $14 price target. In a note to clients, J.P. Morgan writes, "VLY reported 4Q EPS of $0.24 with core EPS in the $0.21 range, which was in line with our forecast. Fees came in ahead of forecast, tied to strong gains on sales of mortgage loans, and provision came in below forecast on a much lower run-rate of net charge-offs. The stock is trading at 2.4x TBV, which represents a sizable 67% premium to peers, and on a normalized EPS basis, the shares trade at 13.9x our normalized EPS estimate of $1.00, which is the most expensive of all 26 regional banks we cover (median P/E on normalized EPS is 10.5x). From the current valuation we believe the stock has run out of room for additional upside. Good company, but an expensive stock in our view." VLY shares closed Thursday at $13.93, down 0.78% from Wednesday's close.