Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) Reaches New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB)’s share price reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $30.21 and last traded at $30.06, with a volume of 6209 shares. The stock had previously closed at $27.53.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. 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 raised shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Hovde Group lifted their price target on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Berkshire Hills Bancorp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.80.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market cap of $1.29 billion, a PE ratio of 31.61 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $27.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.95.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $125.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.61 million. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 5.86% and a return on equity of 8.68%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.50 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.40%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s payout ratio is 75.79%.

Institutional Trading of Berkshire Hills Bancorp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $201,000 after acquiring an additional 601 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 4.9% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 22,799 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $520,000 after buying an additional 1,071 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 233.3% during the third quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,000 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 5.8% during the first 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. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 58.5% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,879 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $134,000 after buying an additional 2,169 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

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.