Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Has $4.03 Million Stock Holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) by 11.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 141,775 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,750 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp were worth $4,031,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BHLB. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 13,241 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $376,000 after acquiring an additional 382 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,411 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $415,000 after purchasing an additional 496 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 282.1% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,112 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 821 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 57.8% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,869 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $82,000 after purchasing an additional 1,051 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the third quarter valued at about $34,000. 83.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BHLB has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $32.00 to $34.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $31.00 target price on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.13.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of BHLB opened at $26.13 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock has a market cap of $1.21 billion, a PE ratio of 18.14 and a beta of 0.85. Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.50 and a 1 year high of $32.36. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $28.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.28.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The savings and loans company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.06. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 8.56%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.76%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Berkshire Hills Bancorp news, EVP Ellen Tulchiner sold 1,052 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.97, for a total value of $31,528.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.02% 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.