Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 761 Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System decreased its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,821 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 761 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp were worth $338,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BHLB. Victory Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth approximately $219,000. LSV Asset Management raised its position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 777.8% in the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 314,951 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $7,820,000 after buying an additional 279,071 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 10,884 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $270,000 after acquiring an additional 806 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 361,890 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $8,986,000 after acquiring an additional 6,624 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,525,556 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $62,711,000 after acquiring an additional 20,328 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BHLB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Hovde Group raised their price target on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Janney Montgomery Scott cut shares of 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. Finally, StockNews.com raised Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Berkshire Hills Bancorp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.80.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Down 1.9 %

BHLB opened at $26.73 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $25.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $18.31 and a twelve month high of $28.51. The stock has a market cap of $1.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.46 and a beta of 0.88.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $174.24 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $108.46 million. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.61% and a net margin of 3.37%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 20th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 20th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 144.00%.

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.