Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The savings and loans company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $169.32 million during 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 prior year, the company posted $0.63 EPS.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Up 3.5 %

Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp stock opened at $21.71 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The company has a 50-day moving average of $21.91 and a 200 day moving average of $22.19. The firm has a market cap of $943.52 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.42 and a beta of 0.87. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 1 year low of $18.07 and a 1 year high of $25.79.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 21st were paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 20th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.32%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s payout ratio is 144.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Berkshire Hills Bancorp news, Director Michael Zaitzeff sold 51,910 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.18, for a total transaction of $1,307,093.80. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,665 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,104.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, 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 value of $223,542.06. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Michael Zaitzeff sold 51,910 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.18, for a total value of $1,307,093.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,104.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 224,788 shares of company stock worth $5,239,449 in the last three months. 1.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Berkshire Hills Bancorp

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the first quarter worth $35,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the first quarter worth about $57,000. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the first quarter worth about $57,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 304.1% in the first quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,538 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 1,910 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Middle East FZE purchased a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth about $119,000. Institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $26.00 price objective on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a report on Friday, January 26th. 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, Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $24.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $25.00.

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.