Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Short Interest Down 7.7% in September

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 1,080,000 shares, a decline of 7.7% from the September 15th total of 1,170,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 299,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.6 days. Approximately 2.5% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,426,599 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $35,422,000 after purchasing an additional 43,822 shares in the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth approximately $485,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 0.7% during the first quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 122,812 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $2,815,000 after buying an additional 876 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 77.5% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 21,698 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $497,000 after acquiring an additional 9,472 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management raised its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 116.2% in the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 680,903 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $15,606,000 after acquiring an additional 365,952 shares during the last quarter. 83.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Janney Montgomery Scott cut Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Hovde Group upped their target price on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.80.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE BHLB opened at $28.34 on Friday. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 1 year low of $18.31 and a 1 year high of $28.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $26.68 and a 200 day moving average of $24.28. The stock has a market cap of $1.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.68 and a beta of 0.86.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $174.24 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $108.46 million. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 3.37% and a return on equity of 8.61%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s payout ratio is 144.00%.

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.