Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Reduces Holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System decreased its position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 20,400 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 1,000 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Berkshire Hills Bancorp were worth $549,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 7.4% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 8,752 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $201,000 after buying an additional 601 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 4.9% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 22,799 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $520,000 after buying an additional 1,071 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 233.3% during the third quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,000 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 1,400 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 5.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,988 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $734,000 after buying an additional 1,753 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 58.5% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,879 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $134,000 after buying an additional 2,169 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of BHLB opened at $27.55 on Wednesday. Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $20.02 and a twelve month high of $28.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $26.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.18 billion, a PE ratio of 29.00 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.03. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.68% and a net margin of 5.86%. The company had revenue of $125.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.61 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.50 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.16 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 Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.61%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s payout ratio is 75.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BHLB. StockNews.com raised Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Hovde Group raised their price target on Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott lowered Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $28.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.80.

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.