Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning.

BHLB has been the subject of several other research reports. Hovde Group boosted their price target on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Janney Montgomery Scott lowered shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $28.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $26.80.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp stock opened at $28.04 on Wednesday. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 52 week low of $18.31 and a 52 week high of $28.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.08 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.07. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $22.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $22.68.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last announced 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $108.46 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.55 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.1 EPS for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the 1st quarter worth about $146,000. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 8,752 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $201,000 after buying an additional 601 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth about $219,000. Teton Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth about $240,000. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth about $258,000. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.