Analysts Set Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Price Target at $31.13

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $31.13.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on BHLB shares. Piper Sandler upgraded Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $32.00 to $34.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,664,138 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $44,815,000 after buying an additional 293,784 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,672,000. Systematic Financial Management LP lifted its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 13.7% in the 3rd quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 952,627 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $25,654,000 after buying an additional 114,433 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 126.0% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 183,616 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $4,186,000 after buying an additional 102,384 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 28.5% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 340,694 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $9,175,000 after buying an additional 75,476 shares during the period. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BHLB opened at $28.18 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.66 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $29.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.80. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a twelve month low of $20.50 and a twelve month high of $32.36.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $125.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.61 million. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.68% and a net margin of 5.86%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.50 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 75.79%.

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.