Stockholders at Hampden Bancorp’s recent annual meeting barred efforts by a Texas hedge fund to elect its candidates to the company’s board of directors in order to force a sale or merger, but such a move may not be totally out of the question in the future.

Clover Partners, also known in filings as the Clover Group, which holds approximately 8 percent of Hampden Bancorp’s stock, had nominated Johnny Guerry and Garold Base for election to the company’s board of directors in an effort to force a sale or merger. The Texas-based hedge fund has asserted in filings that the holding company for Springfield-headquartered Hampden Bank has paid its executives too much while delivering lackluster stock performance. The company countered that Clover Partners misstated the number and compensation of Hampden Bank’s executives and said it was taking seriously last year’s shareholder proposal to consider strategic options to increase shareholder value.

Stockholders rejected Clover Partners’ nominees in favor of the company’s slate of nominees-Thomas Burton, Arlene Putnam, Linda Silva Thompson and Richard D. Suski-who will now serve three-year terms as Class III directors until 2016.

In response to concerns raised last year about Hampden Bancorp’s performance, the company hired the investment bank Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc. to help figure out how it might enhance shareholder value.

Stockholders also approved an advisory proposal on executive compensation, known as a "say-on-pay" vote, and furthermore voted the company hold a "say-on-pay" vote ever year.