Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 6,923 Shares of Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 166,119 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 6,923 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.43% of Dime Community Bancshares worth $4,784,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at about $56,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 30.4% during the third 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 boosted its holdings in Dime Community Bancshares by 496.9% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,805 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $98,000 after acquiring an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Dime Community Bancshares during the 2nd quarter worth about $101,000. Finally, EMC Capital Management grew its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 42.2% during the 1st quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 9,861 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $190,000 after buying an additional 2,924 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L purchased 29,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $32.00 per share, for a total transaction of $928,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 1,044,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,415,072. This represents a 2.86 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 9.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DCOM has been the subject of several research reports. Stephens raised shares of Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com downgraded Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 21st. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $25.50 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.40.

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of DCOM stock opened at $35.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. 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 company’s 50-day moving average is $30.09 and its 200 day moving average is $24.49. 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 announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.65 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 17th were issued a $0.25 dividend. 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 presently 66.67%.

Dime Community Bancshares Profile

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.