New York State Common Retirement Fund Purchases 47,338 Shares of Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. $DCOM

New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) by 15.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 350,807 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after purchasing an additional 47,338 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.80% of Dime Community Bancshares worth $10,465,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 15.7% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 23,143 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $645,000 after purchasing an additional 3,135 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 132.3% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 169,503 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $4,726,000 after buying an additional 96,523 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 17.1% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 23,621 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $659,000 after buying an additional 3,443 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 5.9% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 324,976 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $9,060,000 after acquiring an additional 18,195 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 5.4% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 82,084 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $2,289,000 after acquiring an additional 4,231 shares in the last quarter. 75.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Dime Community Bancshares Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of Dime Community Bancshares stock opened at $35.44 on Wednesday. Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $23.25 and a 1 year high of $36.47. The firm has a market cap of $1.56 billion, a PE ratio of 15.02 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $31.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $29.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 21st. The savings and loans company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $123.85 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $118.14 million. Dime Community Bancshares had a net margin of 15.15% and a return on equity of 9.12%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.42 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.06 EPS for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 16th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 16th. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.37%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L sold 7,500 shares of Dime Community Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.83, for a total value of $261,225.00. Following the sale, the director owned 1,006,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,050,090.77. The trade was a 0.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 28,334 shares of company stock worth $966,688. Company insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on DCOM. Zacks Research raised shares of Dime Community Bancshares from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Dime Community Bancshares from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. DA Davidson lifted their target price on Dime Community Bancshares from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Dime Community Bancshares in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.33.

About Dime Community Bancshares

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.