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

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the four research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $25.00.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on BHLB shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a report on Friday, January 26th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Piper Sandler raised Berkshire Hills Bancorp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $24.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Michael Zaitzeff sold 20,500 shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.02, for a total transaction of $451,410.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 87,947 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,936,592.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Berkshire Hills Bancorp news, Director Michael Zaitzeff sold 20,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.02, for a total value of $451,410.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 87,947 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,936,592.94. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Baye Adofo-Wilson sold 10,074 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.19, for a total value of $223,542.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 224,788 shares of company stock worth $5,239,449. 1.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 17.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,382,777 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $27,725,000 after purchasing an additional 201,948 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 15.4% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 397,579 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $7,971,000 after acquiring an additional 53,162 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 8.7% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 205,597 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $4,122,000 after acquiring an additional 16,440 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the third quarter valued at $719,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC increased its position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 208,947 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $4,189,000 after purchasing an additional 2,115 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Trading Down 1.8 %

NYSE BHLB opened at $20.51 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $21.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $22.20. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a one year low of $18.07 and a one year high of $25.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.93. The firm has a market cap of $891.36 million, a PE ratio of 12.82 and a beta of 0.87.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The savings and loans company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.49 by ($0.02). Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 11.24% and a return on equity of 9.48%. The company had revenue of $142.15 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.05 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.64 EPS. Analysts expect that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 21st were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 20th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.00%.

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.