Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $26.80.

BHLB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com raised Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Janney Montgomery Scott lowered Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $28.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Hovde Group boosted their price objective on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BHLB. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the second quarter valued at approximately $104,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 58.5% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,879 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $134,000 after acquiring an additional 2,169 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp acquired a new position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the first quarter valued at approximately $146,000. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in 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 valued at $201,000 after acquiring an additional 601 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $219,000. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of NYSE BHLB opened at $26.55 on Tuesday. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 12-month low of $18.31 and a 12-month high of $28.51. The company has a market cap of $1.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.10 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $24.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.90.

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

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 20th were paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 20th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 144.00%.

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.