Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 (NYSE:BHLB)

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share by the savings and loans company on Thursday, May 29th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp has raised its dividend payment by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a payout ratio of 21.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Berkshire Hills Bancorp to earn $3.78 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 19.0%.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of BHLB traded up $0.02 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $25.31. 92,048 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 370,637. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00. The stock's fifty day moving average is $25.27 and its 200 day moving average is $27.77. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 1-year low of $20.76 and a 1-year high of $32.36. The stock has a market cap of $1.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.59 and a beta of 0.53.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $110.44 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $109.71 million. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 8.56% and a return on equity of 8.91%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.49 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Ellen Tulchiner sold 1,052 shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.97, for a total transaction of $31,528.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 1.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and set a $31.00 price target on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $31.13.

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.