Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stake in Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) by 4.0% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 166,119 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 6,923 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Dime Community Bancshares were worth $4,784,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in shares of 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 worth $2,230,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings 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 valued at $85,000 after acquiring an additional 685 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Dime Community Bancshares by 31.2% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,305 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $182,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new position in Dime Community Bancshares in the second quarter valued at about $56,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stephens upgraded Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $30.00 to $39.00 in a report on Monday. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of 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. StockNews.com downgraded Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $25.50 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.40.

Insider Activity

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

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ:DCOM opened at $35.00 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.13 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $24.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. has a one year low of $17.29 and a one year high of $36.05.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last posted its quarterly 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 during 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 period last year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 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 2.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 17th. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.67%.

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.