Sifting through countless of stocks in the Banks industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares and Inc.

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. The company operates through Consumer Banking, Commercial Banking, and Treasury and Corporate other segments. It offers non-interest bearing, savings, NOW, money market, and time deposit accounts; commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, residential mortgage, and automobile loans; loans secured by the cash surrender value of life insurance; home equity loans and lines of credit; automobile financing; and secured and unsecured other consumer loans. The company also invests in various securities and interest-bearing deposits with other banks; and provides international banking services. In addition, it offers investment services for individuals and small to medium sized businesses; and trusts investment strategies designed for various investment profiles and objectives. Further, the company provides trust services, such as living and testamentary trusts, investment management, custodial and escrow services, and estate administration to individuals; tax credit advisory services; brokerage services; property and casualty, life, health, and title insurance agency services; and health care equipment lending and other commercial equipment leasing services, as well as private banking and management services. Additionally, it offers niche financial services, including loan and deposit products for homeowners associations, cannabis-related business banking, and venture banking; online, mobile, and telephone banking services; credit cards; and automated teller machine services. Valley National Bancorp was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey.

Commerce Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Commerce Bank that provides retail, mortgage banking, corporate, investment, trust, and asset management products and services to individuals and businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Retail Banking, Commercial, and Wealth. The Retail Banking segment offers various banking products and services, including consumer deposits; consumer loans, such as automobile, motorcycle, marine, tractor/trailer, recreational vehicle, fixed rate and revolving home equity, and other consumer loans; patient health care financing; real estate loans; indirect and other consumer financing; retail branch network; personal mortgage banking; consumer installment lending; and consumer debit and credit bank cards. The Commercial segment provides corporate lending, leasing, international, merchant and commercial bank card, and securities safekeeping and bond accounting services; and business products, government deposits, and related commercial cash management services, as well as sells fixed income securities to correspondent banks, corporations, public institutions, municipalities, and individuals. The Wealth segment provides traditional trust and estate planning, advisory and discretionary investment portfolio management, and brokerage services, as well as private banking accounts. The company offers private equity investment, securities brokerage, insurance agency, specialty lending, and leasing services, as well as online and mobile banking services. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.

Latest Banks and Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares, Inc. Stock News

As of March 5, 2026, Valley National Bancorp had a $6.9 billion market capitalization, compared to the Banks median of $581.6 million. Valley National Bancorp’s stock is up 3.7% in 2026, down 4% in the previous five trading days and up 34.23% in the past year.

Currently, Valley National Bancorp’s price-earnings ratio is 12.3. Valley National Bancorp’s trailing 12-month revenue is $1.8 billion with a 32.4% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 38.3%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $1.264 per share for the current fiscal year. Valley National Bancorp currently has a 3.5% dividend yield.

As of March 5, 2026, Commerce Bancshares, Inc. had a $7.6 billion market cap, putting it in the 74th percentile of all stocks. Commerce Bancshares, Inc.’s stock is down 3.8% in 2026, down 1.2% in the previous five trading days and down 13.81% in the past year.

Currently, Commerce Bancshares, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 12.8. Commerce Bancshares, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $1.7 billion with a 33.1% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 6.5%. There are no analysts providing consensus earnings estimates for the current fiscal year. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. currently has a 2.0% dividend yield.

How We Compare Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares and Inc. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
Valley National Bancorp	VLY	A
Commerce Bancshares, Inc.	CBSH	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

Valley National Bancorp has a Growth Score of 84, which is Very Strong. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. has a Growth Score of 96, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Growth Grade breakdown above, both Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares and Inc. have a grade of A. For investors who focus solely on a company’s upward growth, further research should be conducted into both companies’ other financial metrics before deciding whether to invest.

Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares and Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
Valley National Bancorp	VLY	F
Commerce Bancshares, Inc.	CBSH	D

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Valley National Bancorp has a Quality Score of 11, which is Very Weak. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. has a Quality Score of 29, which is Weak.

The Quality Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares or Inc. has a high enough Quality Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to quality.

Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares and Inc.’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
Valley National Bancorp	VLY	B
Commerce Bancshares, Inc.	CBSH	D

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

Valley National Bancorp has a Momentum Score of 67, which is Strong. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. has a Momentum Score of 30, which is Weak.

The Momentum Grade Winner: Valley National Bancorp

As you can clearly see from the Momentum Grade breakdown above, Valley National Bancorp is considered to have stronger momentum compared to Commerce Bancshares, Inc.. For those specifically looking for companies that have stronger momentum compared to other companies in the same industry, Valley National Bancorp could be a good stock to invest in. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Other Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares and Inc. Grades

In addition to Growth, Quality and Momentum, A+ Investor also provides grades for Value and Estimate Revisions.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection. Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares or Inc. Stock?

Overall, Valley National Bancorp stock has a Growth Score of 84, Momentum Score of 67 and Quality Score of 11.

Commerce Bancshares, Inc. stock has a Growth Score of 96, Momentum Score of 30 and Quality Score of 29.

Comparing Valley National Bancorp, Commerce Bancshares and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.