Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Given Average Rating of “Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the five brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $34.20.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on DCOM. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com lowered Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 21st. Stephens raised Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Raymond James increased their target price on Dime Community Bancshares from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Down 1.3 %

DCOM stock opened at $34.55 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. Dime Community Bancshares has a 12 month low of $17.29 and a 12 month high of $37.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.35 billion, a PE ratio of 23.03 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $32.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.18.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.12). Dime Community Bancshares had a return on equity of 5.58% and a net margin of 9.65%. The company had revenue of $171.87 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.65 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Dime Community Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 17th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.89%. Dime Community Bancshares’s payout ratio is 66.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Dime Community Bancshares news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L acquired 29,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was bought at an average price of $32.00 per share, with a total value of $928,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,044,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,415,072. The trade was a 2.86 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Michael Fegan sold 2,000 shares of Dime Community Bancshares stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.76, for a total transaction of $71,520.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 20,155 shares in the company, valued at $720,742.80. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 9.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 0.4% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 109,328 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $2,230,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 5,397 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $155,000 after purchasing an additional 465 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 30.4% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,936 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 685 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 31.2% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,305 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $182,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 4.5% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 46,000 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $938,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. 75.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Dime Community Bancshares

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc operates as the holding company for Dime Community Bank that engages in the provision of various commercial banking and financial services. The company accepts time, savings, and demand deposits from the businesses, consumers, and local municipalities. It also offers commercial real estate loans; multi-family mortgage loans; residential mortgage loans; letters of credit; secured and unsecured commercial and consumer loans; lines of credit; home equity loans; and construction and land loans.