Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Announces $0.18 Quarterly Dividend

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 7th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share by the savings and loans company on Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.40%.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp has raised its dividend by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a dividend payout ratio of 21.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Berkshire Hills Bancorp to earn $3.68 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 19.6%.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp stock opened at $30.06 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.03. Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a 52-week low of $20.50 and a 52-week high of $32.36. The firm has a market cap of $1.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.88 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. 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%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Berkshire Hills Bancorp will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BHLB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp from $32.00 to $34.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $31.00 price target on shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded Berkshire Hills Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.