Short Interest in Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Grows By 13.6%

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,170,000 shares, a growth of 13.6% from the August 31st total of 1,030,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 306,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.8 days. Approximately 2.8% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BHLB. Hovde Group upped 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. StockNews.com raised shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, 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 report on Monday, July 22nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.80.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $104,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 58.5% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,879 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $134,000 after purchasing an additional 2,169 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $146,000. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 8,752 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $201,000 after purchasing an additional 601 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 47.0% during the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 11,858 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $270,000 after purchasing an additional 3,789 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of BHLB opened at $26.73 on Friday. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 52 week low of $18.31 and a 52 week high of $28.51. The firm has a market cap of $1.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.46 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.84. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.03. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 3.37% and a return on equity of 8.61%. The business had revenue of $174.24 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $108.46 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.55 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 144.00%.

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.