Analysts Set Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) PT at $25.00

Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the four analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $25.00.

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a research note on Friday, January 26th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Berkshire Hills Bancorp news, Director Baye Adofo-Wilson sold 10,074 shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.19, for a total value of $223,542.06. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director Michael Zaitzeff sold 27,000 shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.43, for a total value of $605,610.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 11,855 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $265,907.65. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Baye Adofo-Wilson sold 10,074 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.19, for a total transaction of $223,542.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 112,472 shares of company stock valued at $2,529,691. Corporate insiders own 1.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Berkshire Hills Bancorp

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $481,000. Grace & White Inc. NY boosted its stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 13.9% in the third quarter. Grace & White Inc. NY now owns 182,349 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $3,656,000 after acquiring an additional 22,200 shares during the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 2.8% during the third quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 21,754 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $436,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Berkshire Bank raised its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. Berkshire Bank now owns 12,584 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 1,691 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 3rd quarter valued at $202,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Up 1.9 %

NYSE:BHLB opened at $23.17 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 1-year low of $18.31 and a 1-year high of $25.79. The company has a 50-day moving average of $21.93 and a 200 day moving average of $22.38. The firm has a market cap of $1.01 billion, a PE ratio of 46.34 and a beta of 0.87.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.02. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 3.40% and a return on equity of 8.77%. The business had revenue of $169.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $107.89 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.63 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 21st were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 20th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.