Analysts Set Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Target Price at $26.80

Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $26.80.

BHLB has been the topic of a number of research reports. Janney Montgomery Scott downgraded shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $28.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, July 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Hovde Group boosted their target price on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of BHLB stock opened at $26.33 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.66 and a beta of 0.86. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 52 week low of $18.31 and a 52 week high of $28.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.02.

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

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.73%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s payout ratio is 144.00%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BHLB. Norges Bank bought a new position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the 4th quarter valued at about $7,963,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 272.6% in the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 83,050 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $2,074,000 after buying an additional 60,762 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,426,599 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $35,422,000 after buying an additional 43,822 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $485,000. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 122,812 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $2,815,000 after buying an additional 876 shares during the period. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.