Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Cuts Position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. decreased its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) by 1.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 194,336 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 2,421 shares during the quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc.’s holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp were worth $4,454,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp acquired a new stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the first quarter valued at $146,000. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 601 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at about $219,000. Teton Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $240,000. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $258,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BHLB. Janney Montgomery Scott downgraded 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. Hovde Group upped 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. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.80.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp stock traded up $0.21 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $28.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 61,676 shares, compared to its average volume of 248,452. Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $18.31 and a 1-year high of $28.51. The business has a fifty day moving average of $23.26 and a 200 day moving average of $22.74. The company has a market capitalization of $1.21 billion, a PE ratio of 55.58 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $174.24 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $108.46 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.1 EPS for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

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