Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Receives $31.13 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the six ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $31.13.

Separately, Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $31.00 target price on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a research report on Monday, April 28th.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of BHLB stock opened at $25.18 on Friday. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 52-week low of $21.62 and a 52-week high of $32.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock has a market cap of $1.17 billion, a PE ratio of 10.20 and a beta of 0.62. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.65.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.06. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a return on equity of 9.13% and a net margin of 15.02%. The company had revenue of $110.44 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $109.71 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.49 earnings per share. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.52 EPS for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.86%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 15th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.15%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,257,565 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $137,170,000 after acquiring an additional 105,497 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,686,281 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $76,371,000 after purchasing an additional 10,579 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 166.4% in the first quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,842,975 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $48,083,000 after purchasing an additional 1,151,107 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 5.0% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,355,863 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $35,374,000 after buying an additional 64,316 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. boosted its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 13.6% during the first quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,175,620 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $30,672,000 after buying an additional 141,137 shares during the last quarter. 83.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.