Analysts Set Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Target Price at $34.20

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the five analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One 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 1-year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $34.20.

A number of research analysts recently commented on DCOM shares. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Dime Community Bancshares from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stephens raised Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $39.00 in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, September 21st.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CTO Michael Fegan sold 2,000 shares of Dime Community Bancshares 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 transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 20,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $720,742.80. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Basswood Capital Management, L purchased 29,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $32.00 per share, with a total value of $928,000.00. Following 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 disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 9.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $56,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position 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 valued at $85,000 after buying an additional 685 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares during the second quarter worth $101,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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. Finally, Denali Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at $235,000. Institutional investors own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

Dime Community Bancshares Price Performance

NASDAQ:DCOM opened at $31.31 on Tuesday. Dime Community Bancshares has a 12-month low of $17.29 and a 12-month high of $37.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.87 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $33.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.12). Dime Community Bancshares had a net margin of 9.65% and a return on equity of 5.58%. The business had revenue of $171.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.65 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Investors of record on Friday, January 17th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 17th. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.