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.

BHLB has been the topic of a number of other reports. Hovde Group raised their price objective on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Janney Montgomery Scott cut shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $28.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $26.80.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp stock opened at $28.04 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.06. 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 simple moving average of $23.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.71. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.03. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 3.37% and a return on equity of 8.61%. The firm had revenue of $174.24 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $108.46 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.55 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 17,843 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $443,000 after acquiring an additional 541 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at $534,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 55.8% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 11,967 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 4,287 shares in the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at $258,000. Finally, Grace & White Inc. NY lifted its position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Grace & White Inc. NY now owns 199,349 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $4,950,000 after acquiring an additional 17,000 shares in the last quarter. 83.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Company 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.