Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 783,200 shares, a drop of 7.5% from the November 15th total of 846,300 shares. Currently, 1.8% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 268,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BHLB. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the second quarter worth approximately $6,330,000. Systematic Financial Management LP lifted its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 13.7% during the third quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 952,627 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $25,654,000 after purchasing an additional 114,433 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 60.4% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 422,621 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $9,636,000 after purchasing an additional 159,200 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the third quarter worth approximately $623,000. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 2,169 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Berkshire Hills Bancorp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.20.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Down 1.1 %

BHLB stock traded down $0.33 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $29.87. The company had a trading volume of 1,976,448 shares, compared to its average volume of 261,931. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The company has a market capitalization of $1.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.37 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.47. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $20.50 and a fifty-two week high of $32.36.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.03. The company 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%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.50 EPS. Analysts forecast that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.79%.

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.