Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 783,200 shares, a decrease of 7.5% from the November 15th total of 846,300 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 268,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days. Approximately 1.8% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BHLB. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $34,000. nVerses Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 233.3% during the third quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,000 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 1,400 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the second quarter valued at approximately $104,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 58.5% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,879 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $134,000 after acquiring an additional 2,169 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC bought a new position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the third quarter worth $211,000. 83.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on BHLB shares. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.20.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Down 2.5 %

Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp stock traded down $0.74 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $29.13. 1,795,018 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 268,090. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $29.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $26.52. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a twelve month low of $20.50 and a twelve month high of $32.36. The stock has a market cap of $1.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.66 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.03. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 5.86% and a return on equity of 8.68%. The company had revenue of $125.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $119.61 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is 75.79%.

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.