Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Receives $25.00 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the six analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five investment 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 analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $26.80.

A number of analysts recently weighed in on BHLB shares. Janney Montgomery Scott lowered shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $28.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday. StockNews.com raised shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Hovde Group upped their target price on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $6,330,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 5.8% in 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 in the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 49,819 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $1,142,000 after buying an additional 2,278 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp purchased a new position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $146,000. Finally, State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 52.6% in the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 19,209 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $481,000 after purchasing an additional 6,620 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Performance

NYSE BHLB opened at $28.00 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $22.90 and its 200-day moving average is $22.64. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 12-month low of $18.31 and a 12-month high of $28.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $1.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.00 and a beta of 0.88.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $108.46 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.55 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

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

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.