Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.02 EPS

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The savings and loans company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $169.32 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $107.89 million. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 3.40% and a return on equity of 8.77%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.63 EPS.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Performance

BHLB stock opened at $21.71 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.03. The stock has a market cap of $943.52 million, a P/E ratio of 43.42 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $21.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.21. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 52 week low of $18.07 and a 52 week high of $25.79.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 4th. Investors 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 3.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 20th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 144.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Michael Zaitzeff sold 51,910 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.18, for a total transaction of $1,307,093.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,665 shares in the company, valued at $67,104.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director Michael Zaitzeff sold 51,910 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.18, for a total transaction of $1,307,093.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,665 shares in the company, valued at $67,104.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Baye Adofo-Wilson sold 10,074 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sold 224,788 shares of company stock worth $5,239,449. 1.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Berkshire Hills Bancorp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at $11,809,000. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 304.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 286,657 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $7,184,000 after buying an additional 215,810 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 10.7% in the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,724,977 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $35,759,000 after buying an additional 167,243 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,616,955 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $165,821,000 after purchasing an additional 126,150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,141,842 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $53,675,000 after purchasing an additional 114,148 shares during the last quarter. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BHLB has been the topic of several recent research reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $24.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a research report on Friday, January 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.00.

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.