Pittsfield’s Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. has reported a 25 percent year-over-year increase in first quarter core earnings to $4.2 million in 2011, compared to $3.3 million in 2010.

Berkshire completed the acquisition of New York’s Rome Bancorp Inc. on April 1, and is planning to complete the acquisition of Legacy Bancorp Inc. in the third quarter.

"We had a strong start to the year, with solid revenue growth driving a 25 percent improvement in core earnings results. We continue to build market share in targeted areas of loan and deposit growth. Our asset quality remains favorable, with ongoing improvement in non-performing assets and loan charge-off metrics from already low levels," said Michael P. Daly, president and chief executive officer. "We recently opened a new office in Rotterdam, N.Y., following the opening of two other New York branch offices in the latter part of 2010. All of our business lines are working together towards our objective of increasing core earnings per share by 40 percent or more in 2011."

He added: "We are proceeding well with the integration of Rome Bancorp and are confident that we will achieve the financial benefits that we originally targeted for this acquisition. Once we have completed the Legacy Bancorp acquisition, we expect to have more than $4 billion in assets, more than 60 branches, and a market capitalization exceeding $450 million based on our recent stock price. These mergers position us well to continue to grow as the leading locally headquartered regional bank serving our New England and New York markets."

The board of directors maintained the cash dividend on Berkshire’s common stock, declaring a dividend of 16-cents per share to stockholders of record at the close of business on May 12, and payable on May 26. This dividend equates to a 2.92 percent annualized yield based on the average closing price of Berkshire’s common stock in the first quarter of 2011, according to a statement.