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

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the five analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $36.40.

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

Dime Community Bancshares Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of DCOM stock opened at $29.41 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.85 and a beta of 1.04. Dime Community Bancshares has a 1-year low of $17.29 and a 1-year high of $37.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.59.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last posted 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, equities analysts forecast that Dime Community Bancshares will post 3.06 EPS for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 17th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.40%. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 169.49%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Raymond A. Nielsen sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.25, for a total transaction of $93,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 41,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,287,031.25. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Basswood Capital Management, L sold 9,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.20, for a total transaction of $306,228.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 37,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,158,986.40. The trade was a 20.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 14,815 shares of company stock worth $471,498 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 9.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Dime Community Bancshares

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CoreCap Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 125.0% during the fourth quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 900 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 861.9% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,135 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 1,017 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 58.0% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,782 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 654 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew 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 buying an additional 909 shares in the last quarter. Finally, USA Financial Formulas acquired a new position in Dime Community Bancshares in the fourth quarter worth $92,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

Dime Community Bancshares Company 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.