Yousif Capital Management LLC Increases Position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB)

Yousif Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) by 3.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,543 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after buying an additional 564 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp were worth $432,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,686,281 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $76,371,000 after purchasing an additional 10,579 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,291,547 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $36,719,000 after purchasing an additional 222,162 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp during the 4th quarter valued at $29,410,000. Systematic Financial Management LP grew its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 999,861 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $28,426,000 after acquiring an additional 47,234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 665,007 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $18,906,000 after acquiring an additional 7,564 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Price Performance

Berkshire Hills Bancorp stock opened at $23.86 on Friday. Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $21.16 and a 12-month high of $32.36. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $24.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.10 billion, a PE ratio of 9.66 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.06. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 15.02% and a return on equity of 9.13%. The business had revenue of $110.44 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.71 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.49 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.52 EPS for the current year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th were given a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 15th. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 29.15%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $31.00 price objective on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.13.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp 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.