Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Shares Acquired by Jump Financial LLC

Jump Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) by 20.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 30,942 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,206 shares during the quarter. Jump Financial LLC’s holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp were worth $880,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 282.1% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,112 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 821 shares in the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 805.3% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,376 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 1,224 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 2,259.4% during the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 2,265 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 2,169 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 57.8% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,869 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $82,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Plimoth Trust Co. LLC acquired a new position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $204,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on BHLB. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $31.00 target price on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $32.00 to $34.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.13.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BHLB opened at $23.35 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.76 and a 1 year high of $32.36. The firm has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.22 and a beta of 0.58.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The savings and loans company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.06. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 8.56%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 20th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 50.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Berkshire Hills Bancorp news, EVP Ellen Tulchiner sold 1,052 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.97, for a total value of $31,528.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Profile

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.