Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from 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 Ratings reports. One 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 issued a report on the stock in the last year is $34.20.

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DCOM. Stephens raised shares of Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $30.00 to $39.00 in a report on Monday, November 18th. Raymond James lifted 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Dime Community Bancshares from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 21st.

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Down 5.5 %

DCOM opened at $29.59 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.73 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $33.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.22. Dime Community Bancshares has a twelve month low of $17.29 and a twelve 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 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $86.65 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Investors of record on Friday, January 17th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 17th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.38%. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.67%.

Insider Activity at Dime Community Bancshares

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new stake in Dime Community Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at about $56,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 30.4% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares in the second quarter valued at approximately $101,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Dime Community Bancshares by 31.2% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,305 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $182,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Denali Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Dime Community Bancshares during the 2nd quarter worth $235,000. 75.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.