The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:BHLB). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Financial company by 0.65% to 5.16 million shares with purchase of 33516.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 11.46% valued currently at $154.27 million. In addition, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings by 98412.0 to 3.08 million shares. And Systematic Financial Management L has lifted its position by 1.29% or 10160.0 shares – to 0.8 million shares.
With over 0.38 million Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. (BHLB) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $30.79 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $11.81 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 24.45% and its price on 01/13/23 lost nearly -0.55%. Currently, there are 44.70M common shares owned by the public and among those 42.94M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 6 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for BHLB have a consensus price objective of $30.00. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $34.00 and a low of $22.00. The average price target is -2.63% below its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -39.95% over that period. But an upside of 9.44% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $31.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 45 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 35 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 1,757,247 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 10 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 2,955,157 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. are iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, and Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund. iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF owns 3.09 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $92.44 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 2409.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 1.29 million shares valued at over $38.52 million and representing 2.86% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund bought 92.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 1.12 million shares at a value of $33.5 million. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.49% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. (NYSE: BHLB) opened at $30.69, down -$0.27 from a prior closing price of $30.96. However, the script later moved the day high at 30.98, down -0.55%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 0.00% and 4.44% over the past three months. BHLB shares are trading 2.98% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 0.03% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $23.62 and touched a high of $31.78 over the same period. BHLB has an average intraday trading volume of 308.14K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 3.38%, 2.74%, and 10.42% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. (NYSE: BHLB) shares accounts for 87.60% of the company’s 44.70M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 28.62%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 53.82% and 13.60% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $1.39B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.01. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 17.53, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.76. The company has a PEG of 1.75 and the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.14. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.76% over the week and 1.77% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. (BHLB) will achieve an EPS of $0.62 for the current quarter, $0.63 for the next quarter and $2.49 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.6 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.65. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.42 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 123.40%, and 25.51% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 10.00% over the next five years, compared to 4.90% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 6 brokerage firm advisors rate Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. (BHLB) as a “Hold” at a consensus score of 3.00. Specifically, 2 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 2 of the 6 advise that investors “hold,” and 2 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the BHLB, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Piper Sandler stated their Underweight rating for the stock in a research note on October 14, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $31-$29. Hovde Group coverage for the Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. (BHLB) stock in a research note released on September 13, 2022 offered a Outperform rating with a price target of $33. Janney was of a view on July 21, 2022 that the stock is Buy, while Compass Point gave the stock Sell rating on April 21, 2022, issuing a price target of $23. Keefe Bruyette on their part issued Mkt Perform rating on January 10, 2022.
