Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) has received an average rating of “Buy” from the five ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $34.20.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 21st. Stephens upgraded shares of Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted 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 report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Raymond James raised their target price on Dime Community Bancshares from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Trading of Dime Community Bancshares

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares in the second quarter worth about $56,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in 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 worth $85,000 after acquiring an additional 685 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in Dime Community Bancshares in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $101,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $182,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Denali Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $235,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

Dime Community Bancshares Trading Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ:DCOM opened at $31.14 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $1.22 billion, a PE ratio of 20.76 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.86. Dime Community Bancshares has a 12 month low of $17.29 and a 12 month high of $37.60.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.29 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $171.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.65 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Investors of record on Friday, January 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 17th. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.67%.

Dime Community Bancshares Company Profile

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.