Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (BHLB) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 15th

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share by the savings and loans company on Thursday, May 29th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp has raised its dividend payment by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a payout ratio of 21.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Berkshire Hills Bancorp to earn $3.78 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 19.0%.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Up 3.8%

BHLB opened at $26.51 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $25.12 and its 200 day moving average is $27.73. The stock has a market cap of $1.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.41 and a beta of 0.53. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $20.76 and a fifty-two week high of $32.36.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.06. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 8.56% and a return on equity of 8.91%. The business had revenue of $110.44 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.71 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.49 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $31.00 price objective on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a report on Monday, April 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.13.

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.