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

Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has given a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $31.13.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler raised shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $32.00 to $34.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $31.00 target price on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a research note on Friday, January 31st.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE BHLB opened at $26.26 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 52-week low of $20.50 and a 52-week high of $32.36. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $28.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.32. The stock has a market cap of $1.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.23 and a beta of 0.85.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. 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. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 8.56% and a return on equity of 8.91%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.52 EPS for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th were paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.74%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s payout ratio is 50.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Ellen Tulchiner sold 1,052 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.97, for a total transaction of $31,528.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. purchased a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at $29,410,000. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP raised its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 623.8% in the fourth quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 516,603 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $14,687,000 after acquiring an additional 445,228 shares in the last quarter. Bayview Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at about $9,330,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 21.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,664,138 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $44,815,000 after acquiring an additional 293,784 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 79.3% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 537,221 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $15,273,000 after acquiring an additional 237,607 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

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.