Analysts Set Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Price Target at $26.80

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the six brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $26.80.

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Janney Montgomery Scott lowered Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Hovde Group raised their target price on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of BHLB stock opened at $25.82 on Friday. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 52-week low of $18.31 and a 52-week high of $28.51. The stock has a market cap of $1.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.64 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $26.02 and its 200-day moving average is $23.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $174.24 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 quarter last year, the company posted $0.55 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.1 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Berkshire Hills Bancorp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 116.2% in the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 680,903 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $15,606,000 after buying an additional 365,952 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $7,963,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,330,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 60.4% during the second 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 period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

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.