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

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $28.20.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Trading Down 0.2 %

BHLB opened at $30.31 on Wednesday. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 52 week low of $20.50 and a 52 week high of $32.36. The company has a market capitalization of $1.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.91 and a beta of 0.88. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $28.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.29. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $125.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.61 million. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 5.86% and a return on equity of 8.68%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.50 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.38%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.79%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,988 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $734,000 after buying an additional 1,753 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the second quarter worth about $6,330,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 47.0% during the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 11,858 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $270,000 after acquiring an additional 3,789 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the second quarter valued at about $676,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 57.3% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 38,821 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $885,000 after purchasing an additional 14,149 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

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.