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

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) has been given an average recommendation of “Buy” by the five analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $36.40.

DCOM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler upgraded Dime Community Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Stephens raised shares of Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th.

Dime Community Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of DCOM opened at $31.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The firm has a market cap of $1.22 billion, a PE ratio of 52.93 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $32.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $29.24. Dime Community Bancshares has a twelve month low of $17.29 and a twelve month high of $37.60.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.02). Dime Community Bancshares had a net margin of 4.50% and a return on equity of 5.43%. As a group, research analysts expect that Dime Community Bancshares will post 2.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dime Community Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 17th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 17th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 169.49%.

Insider Activity

In other Dime Community Bancshares news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L acquired 29,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $32.00 per share, with a total value of $928,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,044,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,415,072. The trade was a 2.86 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Michael Fegan sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $720,742.80. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 9.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Dime Community Bancshares

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. KBC Group NV raised its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 50.8% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,697 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 909 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 30.4% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,936 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 685 shares in the last quarter. USA Financial Formulas acquired a new position in Dime Community Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth $92,000. Quest Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 9.4% in the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 5,397 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $155,000 after buying an additional 465 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew 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 valued at $182,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. 75.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.