Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Shares Acquired by Public Sector Pension Investment Board

Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) by 6.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 93,532 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,998 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp were worth $2,133,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 601 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 0.7% in the first quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 122,812 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $2,815,000 after purchasing an additional 876 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,988 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $734,000 after buying an additional 1,753 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 99,677 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $2,273,000 after purchasing an additional 2,257 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 4.8% in the first quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 49,819 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $1,142,000 after acquiring an additional 2,278 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BHLB has been the topic of several research reports. Hovde Group upped their price target on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. StockNews.com upgraded Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott downgraded shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $28.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Berkshire Hills Bancorp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.80.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BHLB opened at $26.73 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $26.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $18.31 and a fifty-two week high of $28.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.46 and a beta of 0.86.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $174.24 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $108.46 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.55 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 144.00%.

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.