VALLEY NATIONAL BANCORP

VLYdata completeness 100%18 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

VALLEY NATIONAL BANCORP earns about 23% on invested capital, far above its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 38% over 5 years — a real edge showing up in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $9.16 and $10.9 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue$1.33B1$1.98B2$3.14B3$3.36B3$3.23B3
Net income$473.8M4$568.9M5$498.5M6$380.3M6$598M6
Operating cash flow$837.1M7$1.43B8$378.2M9$548.5M9$343.8M9
Capital expenditure$39.4M10$68.9M11$76M12$16.1M12$18.1M12
Free cash flow (derived)$797.7M7$1.36B8$302.1M9$532.4M9$325.7M9
Total debt$655.7M13$138.7M14$917.8M15$72.7M16$91.5M16
Cash & equivalents$2.05B17$947.9M18$891.2M18$1.89B18$1.58B18
Diluted shares410.0M487.8M509.2M518.0M563.8M

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$138.48
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$10.61
Free cash flow it threw off
$5.78
Debt you’d be carrying
$1.62

10 shares is a claim on $138.48 of net worth that earned you $10.61 and generated $5.78 of cash last year, against $1.62 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
23% avg · 5y
FY21 15%FY22 14%FY23 24%FY24 32%FY25 32%

It earned about 23% on invested capital, year after year, against a ~9% cost of capital — the footprint of real pricing power. Competition usually drags returns like this back down; here it hasn't.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+38% shares · 5y

Share count is up 38% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it. Total debt has fallen 86% — deleveraging.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $9.16 and $10.9 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$10.28
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$325.7M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$10.9
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$325.7M
Earnings Power Value
$9.16
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$498.5M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$17.74
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years0.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $10.9
The three cases
Bear0.0%$10.9
Base0.0%$10.9
Bull5.0%$12.9

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 0.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000714310-24-000065 (InterestAndDividendIncomeOperating)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000714310-25-000068 (InterestAndDividendIncomeOperating)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000714310-26-000017 (InterestAndDividendIncomeOperating)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000714310-24-000065 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000714310-25-000068 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000714310-26-000017 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000714310-24-000065 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000714310-25-000068 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000714310-26-000017 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000714310-24-000065 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000714310-25-000068 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000714310-26-000017 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000714310-23-000043 (ShortTermBorrowings)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000714310-24-000065 (ShortTermBorrowings)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000714310-25-000068 (ShortTermBorrowings)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0000714310-26-000017 (ShortTermBorrowings)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000714310-25-000068 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000714310-26-000017 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)