Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Short Interest Update

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,700,000 shares, an increase of 8.4% from the July 31st total of 2,490,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 213,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 12.6 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Dime Community Bancshares

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 109,328 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $2,230,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in Dime Community Bancshares by 7.4% during the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 21,052 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $405,000 after purchasing an additional 1,442 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Dime Community Bancshares by 4.5% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 46,000 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $938,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Dime Community Bancshares by 24.5% during the 1st quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,837 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $247,000 after purchasing an additional 2,523 shares during the period. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new stake in Dime Community Bancshares during the 2nd quarter worth about $56,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on DCOM shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Dime Community Bancshares from $25.50 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Dime Community Bancshares from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Dime Community Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.25.

Dime Community Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ DCOM opened at $26.01 on Monday. Dime Community Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $17.29 and a fifty-two week high of $27.91. The company has a market cap of $1.02 billion, a PE ratio of 14.61 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.13.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.01. Dime Community Bancshares had a net margin of 9.98% and a return on equity of 6.58%. The company had revenue of $171.23 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $82.19 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.68 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 17th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 17th. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.18%.

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.