Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Shares Sold by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System trimmed its stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) by 4.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,400 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 1,000 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp were worth $549,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $6,330,000. LSV Asset Management raised its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 116.2% during the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 680,903 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $15,606,000 after purchasing an additional 365,952 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 159,200 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 12.6% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 97,420 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $2,233,000 after purchasing an additional 10,903 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $623,000. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Trading Up 1.8 %

BHLB stock opened at $27.55 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $1.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.00 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.87. Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $20.02 and a 52 week high of $28.51.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 the consensus estimate of $119.61 million. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.68% and a net margin of 5.86%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.50 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.16 EPS for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.61%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s payout ratio is 75.79%.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp 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.