Graham Capital Management L.P. Invests $1.01 Million in Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB)

Graham Capital Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 35,373 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,006,000. Graham Capital Management L.P. owned about 0.08% of Berkshire Hills Bancorp at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BHLB. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at $29,410,000. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 623.8% in the 4th quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 516,603 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $14,687,000 after acquiring an additional 445,228 shares during the period. Bayview Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at $9,330,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at $6,672,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp by 20.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 222,162 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of BHLB opened at $26.80 on Wednesday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $1.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.61 and a beta of 0.53. The company’s fifty day moving average is $25.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $27.72. Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.76 and a 1 year 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 the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $110.44 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $109.71 million. Berkshire Hills Bancorp had a net margin of 8.56% and a return on equity of 8.91%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.49 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.52 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, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.15%.

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.