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

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) has been given an average recommendation of “Buy” by the five research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $34.20.

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

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Down 5.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:DCOM opened at $29.59 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The stock has a market cap of $1.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.73 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a 50 day moving average of $33.35 and a 200-day moving average of $28.22. Dime Community Bancshares has a one year low of $17.29 and a one year high of $37.60.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last issued 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 business had revenue of $171.87 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 firm posted $0.56 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Michael Fegan sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 20,155 shares in the company, valued at $720,742.80. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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, for a total transaction of $928,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 1,044,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,415,072. This represents a 2.86 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 9.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DCOM. Rhumbline Advisers grew 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 valued at $2,230,000 after buying an additional 428 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 46,000 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $938,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at about $101,000. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its holdings in Dime Community Bancshares by 16.0% during the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 35,468 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $724,000 after purchasing an additional 4,888 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in Dime Community Bancshares by 13.9% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 635,265 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $12,959,000 after buying an additional 77,284 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

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.