Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) is a regional bank that continues to provide a solid return on investment for shareholders. The long-term outlook for the bank is solid, and provides the opportunity for long-term shareholders to experience huge upside. The bank has branches primarily on the east coast, with branches in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, and two branches in Tennessee. Berkshire has the potential to continue to provide strong upside for long-term oriented shareholders.
Recent Acquisitions
Recent acquisitions have helped to drive some of Berkshire's recent growth and should help to drive Berkshire's long term growth. During 2012, it completed two acquisitions, both of which appear to have been solid decisions. The first acquisition that we will analyze is the acquisition of the Connecticut Bank and Trust Company
Connecticut Bank and Trust was a bank that was struggling before Berkshire swooped in and scooped it up for $9 million and 965,000 shares of stock. This deal brought the total offer at the time to around $30 million. The deal was definitely not a bad one for Berkshire, buying Connecticut Bank and Trust for just 1.4 times book, and acquiring $280 million in assets. The deal has helped to provide a basis for growth for Berkshire in Connecticut, as Connecticut Bank and Trust had eight branches in Connecticut. It does not appear as though Berkshire overpaid for the assets, and it will help them to make sustainable revenue growth into the future.
The other acquisition by Berkshire Hills was Beacon Federal Bancorp. The Beacon Federal acquisition is more exciting in my opinion. First of all it was for more money total, approximately $132 million. Also, this provided more branches in the Central New York area. This acquisition should help to drive more growth than the Connecticut based acquisition. There was also a vote of
