Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Receives Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB - Get Free Report) has received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the five analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $31.17.

Separately, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $31.00 target price on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a report on Monday, April 28th.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BHLB traded down $0.01 during trading on Thursday, hitting $26.44. The company had a trading volume of 377,669 shares, compared to its average volume of 415,061. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.33. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $22.27 and a fifty-two week high of $32.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.70 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

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

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 15th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.15%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,257,565 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $137,170,000 after purchasing an additional 105,497 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,686,281 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $76,371,000 after purchasing an additional 10,579 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 166.4% during the 1st quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,842,975 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $48,083,000 after purchasing an additional 1,151,107 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,355,863 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $35,374,000 after purchasing an additional 64,316 shares during the period. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. boosted its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 13.6% during the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 141,137 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company's stock.

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.