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

Shares of Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) have received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the five research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $34.20.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Stephens upgraded Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Raymond James increased their price objective 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. StockNews.com cut Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Dime Community Bancshares from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Dime Community Bancshares

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

Institutional Trading of Dime Community Bancshares

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in DCOM. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 120.9% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 480,944 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $13,851,000 after acquiring an additional 263,225 shares during the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP boosted its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 47.4% in the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 503,653 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $14,505,000 after buying an additional 162,004 shares during the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,090,834 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $31,416,000 after buying an additional 143,402 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 33.9% in the 2nd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 488,554 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $9,967,000 after buying an additional 123,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 13.9% in the 2nd 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 Price Performance

Dime Community Bancshares stock opened at $33.96 on Friday. Dime Community Bancshares has a 12 month low of $17.29 and a 12 month high of $37.60. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.33 billion, a PE ratio of 22.64 and a beta of 1.03.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last released 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). Dime Community Bancshares had a return on equity of 5.58% and a net margin of 9.65%. The company had revenue of $171.87 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.65 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. Equities analysts predict 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 $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.94%. 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.