Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Short Interest Update

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 1,080,000 shares, a decrease of 7.7% from the September 15th total of 1,170,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 299,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.6 days. Currently, 2.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BHLB. nVerses Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 233.3% during the third quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,000 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at $104,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 58.5% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,879 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $134,000 after acquiring an additional 2,169 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp purchased a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the first quarter valued at about $146,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 601 shares during the period. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp stock opened at $28.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 52-week low of $18.31 and a 52-week high of $28.51. The company has a fifty day moving average of $26.68 and a 200-day moving average of $24.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.68 and a beta of 0.86.

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 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 business had revenue of $174.24 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $108.46 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.55 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.12 EPS for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 144.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BHLB has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Janney Montgomery Scott cut shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $28.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, July 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Hovde Group increased their target price on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.80.

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.