Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) to Issue $0.18 Quarterly Dividend

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 7th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share by the savings and loans company on Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.43%.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp has raised its dividend by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a dividend payout ratio of 21.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Berkshire Hills Bancorp to earn $3.68 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 19.6%.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of BHLB traded down $0.87 on Friday, hitting $29.61. 39,016 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 390,057. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a one year low of $20.50 and a one year high of $32.36. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $28.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.03. The company has a market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a PE ratio of 20.58 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The savings and loans company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.06. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 8.56% and a return on equity of 8.91%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on BHLB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $32.00 to $34.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 24th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $31.00 price target on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Berkshire Hills Bancorp currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.13.

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.