GAMMA Investing LLC Buys 512 Shares of Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM)

GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) by 17.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,448 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after buying an additional 512 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Dime Community Bancshares were worth $106,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new stake in Dime Community Bancshares during the second quarter worth $56,000. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in Dime Community Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at $101,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 31.2% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,305 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $182,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the period. Denali Advisors LLC bought a new position in Dime Community Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at $235,000. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. bought a new position in Dime Community Bancshares in the 3rd quarter valued at $235,000. Institutional investors own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James upped their price objective on 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. StockNews.com downgraded Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 21st. Stephens upgraded Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Dime Community Bancshares from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Dime Community Bancshares presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.20.

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Down 5.5 %

DCOM stock opened at $29.59 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 $1.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.73 and a beta of 1.05. Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $17.29 and a fifty-two week high of $37.60. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $33.35 and a 200-day moving average of $28.15.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $171.87 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.65 million. Dime Community Bancshares had a return on equity of 5.58% and a net margin of 9.65%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 17th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.38%. Dime Community Bancshares’s payout ratio is 66.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L acquired 29,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $32.00 per share, with a total value of $928,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 1,044,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,415,072. This trade represents a 2.86 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CTO Michael Fegan sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 20,155 shares in the company, valued at $720,742.80. This trade represents 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 insiders.

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.