Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE: BHLB), parent of Berkshire Bank, reported net income of nearly $8.8 million in the first quarter, compared to a loss of $1.1 million in the year-ago period, boosted by fee-income and loan growth.
Pittsfield, Massachusetts–based Berkshire reported earnings per share of 35 cents in the first quarter. Its core earnings per share, stripping out acquisition and restructuring-related charges, totaled 50 cents. That beat the 48 cents that analysts queried by Zacks Investment Research were expecting.
Berkshire’s fee income increased by $1.1 million, or 9 percent year-over-year; it posted increases in most major categories, according to its earnings report.
The banking company said it generated commercial-loan growth of 14 percent annualized in the first quarter, including 11 percent annualized growth in commercial and industrial loan balances.
Berkshire reported its earnings after the close of trading on Monday. Its stock price rose more than 1 percent in Tuesday’s trading. The stock was up nearly 5.5 percent year to date through Tuesday.
Berkshire Bank has 98 branches in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. Locally, Berkshire Bank ranks number 8 in deposit market share in the 16-county Central New York market with $916 million in deposits, good for a 3.5 percent market share, through 18 branches in the area, according to June 30, 2014 FDIC data, the latest available.
Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com