Amalgamated Bank Sells 454 Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB)

Amalgamated Bank cut its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 12,505 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 454 shares during the quarter. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp were worth $337,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 1.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,632,671 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $60,024,000 after buying an additional 36,521 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 6.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 624,192 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $14,232,000 after acquiring an additional 38,327 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 60.4% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 422,621 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $9,636,000 after acquiring an additional 159,200 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the second quarter valued at approximately $6,330,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 126.0% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 183,616 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $4,186,000 after purchasing an additional 102,384 shares in the last quarter. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on BHLB. 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 downgraded Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $28.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.80.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of BHLB opened at $30.60 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $1.32 billion, a PE ratio of 32.21 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $27.56 and a 200-day moving average of $25.37. Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. has a one year low of $20.50 and a one year high of $32.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $125.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 quarterly revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.50 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 14th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is 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.