Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,170,000 shares, an increase of 13.6% from the August 31st total of 1,030,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 306,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.8 days. Approximately 2.8% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 2nd quarter worth about $104,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 58.5% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,879 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $134,000 after buying an additional 2,169 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the first quarter worth approximately $146,000. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its stake 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 last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 47.0% in the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 11,858 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $270,000 after acquiring an additional 3,789 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BHLB has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. 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. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott cut Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $28.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.80.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of BHLB stock opened at $26.93 on Tuesday. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 12 month low of $18.31 and a 12 month high of $28.51. The company has a market capitalization of $1.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.86 and a beta of 0.86. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $26.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.03. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.61% and a net margin of 3.37%. The firm had revenue of $174.24 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $108.46 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.12 EPS for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.67%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 144.00%.

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.