StockNews.com Upgrades Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) to “Hold”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report published on Wednesday.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on BHLB. Hovde Group upped their price objective on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Janney Montgomery Scott downgraded shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $28.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $26.80.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Price Performance

BHLB opened at $28.04 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.08 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $23.08 and a 200 day moving average of $22.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.07. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $18.31 and a fifty-two week high of $28.51.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $174.24 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $108.46 million. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 3.37% and a return on equity of 8.61%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.1 EPS for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 20th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 20th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 144.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp bought a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the first quarter worth approximately $146,000. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 7.4% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 8,752 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $201,000 after purchasing an additional 601 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth approximately $219,000. Teton Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth approximately $240,000. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth approximately $258,000. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Berkshire Hills Bancorp

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Berkshire Bank that provides various banking products and services in the United States. The company provides various deposit accounts, including demand deposit, interest-bearing checking, regular savings, money market savings, time certificates of deposit, and retirement deposit accounts.