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

Shares of Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) have received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the five brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $31.40.

DCOM has been the subject of several research reports. Stephens upgraded shares of Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $30.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com lowered Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, September 21st. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on Dime Community Bancshares from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Up 3.8 %

Shares of DCOM stock opened at $36.32 on Monday. Dime Community Bancshares has a 12 month low of $17.29 and a 12 month high of $36.50. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market cap of $1.42 billion, a PE ratio of 24.21 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $30.50 and a 200-day moving average of $24.75.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last released its earnings results 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). The company had revenue of $171.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.65 million. Dime Community Bancshares had a net margin of 9.65% and a return on equity of 5.58%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 17th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.75%. Dime Community Bancshares’s payout ratio is presently 66.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L bought 29,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $32.00 per share, for a total transaction of $928,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,044,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,415,072. This trade represents a 2.86 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 9.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Dime Community Bancshares

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DCOM. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares in the second quarter valued at approximately $56,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 30.4% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,936 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $85,000 after purchasing an additional 685 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 496.9% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,805 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $98,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares in the second quarter valued at $101,000. Finally, EMC Capital Management raised its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 42.2% in the first quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 9,861 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $190,000 after buying an additional 2,924 shares during the last quarter. 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.