Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

David Rosato: Sure. So two-part question. So our approach in the third quarter was, the equity markets fell a little hefty to us, especially in the sector that we all travel in. So the average price our share traded at in the third quarter was $21.40. We have a tangible book value at the end of the quarter, $21.23. So, our approach in the third quarter, which was mostly around price discipline. So we bought stock at $20.01, so we were a bit more focused on price and the discipline. And a lot of that was just concerned about how our sector is trading. But in my comments, I did very clearly state that our stock is undervalued. The question is, it may — our stock and our — all of our peers, they stay undervalued for a period of time.

So doesn’t give you a lot of color to Q4, but I think we would have liked to have bought more stock at that price in the third quarter, it just wasn’t available. The second part of your question was this one — this does expire and will we come up with another program. The most likely answer to that is yes. Yes, we still have to socialize that with the Board and go through the normal regulatory protocols. But that would be our intention as long as our Board is supportive.

Chris O’Connell: Great. And just on the balance sheet on the cash levels. You guys are still, I think, a little bit elevated to historical levels today. Do you see an opportunity to kind of bring that down in the coming quarters to help out either fund some loan growth or reduce some higher-cost fundings?

David Rosato: Yes, probably — we’ve — as you imagine, we brought it down quite a bit from where we were in the first half of the year. In Q2, it was a little elevated when we’re going through the government shutdown business. We wanted to have a more liquid balance sheet. Who knows if we’re going to be dealing with that again or not, but aside from that, generally — we would generally concur there’s the ability to bring cash levels down.

Chris O’Connell: Okay. Got it. And then just thinking about bigger picture here as we move into year three and you guys are moving towards those best targets, where do you think you have the both stability or levers to pull in order to trend and get towards those targets. Obviously, a little bit of margin compression, but is it a balance sheet growth, expense management or any fee income opportunities, where do you see the biggest bright spots?

Nitin Mhatre: Yes. I think it’s kind of a different order, but you spelled out the three components. I think expenses will be a big component of it. Balance sheet mix change and growth will be the other part. And I think historically, if you look at the 10-year average, our margins used to be 27%. I think we believe there’s an opportunity to have much higher margins. So there is a little bit of that margin play as well. And we continue to get opportunities through the disruption that’s going on in the market and the — for our ability to hire client books and the bankers with deposit-oriented relationships. We’ve seen good success constantly, and I think that will get accelerated as we go into next year.

David Rosato: I think we also have opportunities on the fee income side. I mean, it’s — those are really good businesses. They take time to scale. You need the right people in the right positions, but I do think we have opportunities there over the next couple of years.

Chris O’Connell: Great. And then lastly, I know you guys give a lot of detail in the deck with regards to this. But just any internal outlook or updates on your thoughts on the overall office portfolio and just the general kind of market conditions in your areas?