Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Receives $38.33 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $38.3333.

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Dime Community Bancshares in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Dime Community Bancshares from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Stephens boosted their price target on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L sold 20,339 shares of Dime Community Bancshares stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.96, for a total transaction of $690,712.44. Following the transaction, the director owned 1,013,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,429,293.24. The trade was a 1.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Stuart H. Lubow sold 19,550 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.07, for a total value of $685,618.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 202,648 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,106,865.36. This represents a 8.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 53,360 shares of company stock worth $1,844,734 in the last quarter. 7.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 25.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,263,230 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $128,281,000 after buying an additional 857,001 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,824,019 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $54,885,000 after acquiring an additional 8,936 shares in the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP increased its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 2.3% in the second quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,228,999 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $33,109,000 after acquiring an additional 27,463 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 13.1% in the second quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,129,067 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $30,417,000 after acquiring an additional 131,087 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 0.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 978,630 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $26,367,000 after acquiring an additional 4,827 shares in the last quarter. 75.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Dime Community Bancshares Trading Down 3.0%

Dime Community Bancshares stock opened at $32.35 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $1.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.71 and a beta of 1.11. Dime Community Bancshares has a 1 year low of $23.25 and a 1 year high of $36.86. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $32.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $30.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 21st. The savings and loans company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $123.85 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $118.14 million. Dime Community Bancshares had a return on equity of 9.12% and a net margin of 15.15%.During the same period last year, the company posted $0.42 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Dime Community Bancshares will post 3.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 16th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 16th. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.37%.

Dime Community Bancshares Company Profile

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc is the bank holding company for Dime Community Bank, headquartered in Hauppauge, New York. Through its subsidiary, the company offers a comprehensive suite of banking and financial services to both individual and commercial customers. With a network of branches spanning the New York metropolitan area and South Florida, Dime Community Bancshares emphasizes relationship banking and local decision-making.

The company’s core lending activities include commercial and multifamily real estate loans, construction and land development financing, and one-to-four-family residential mortgage lending.