Insider Selling: Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Director Sells 2,000 Shares of Stock

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Director Raymond A. Nielsen sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.58, for a total transaction of $51,160.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 35,392 shares in the company, valued at $905,327.36. The trade was a 5.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Dime Community Bancshares Price Performance

NASDAQ DCOM traded down $0.35 on Monday, hitting $25.31. The stock had a trading volume of 36,470 shares, compared to its average volume of 267,815. Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $17.49 and a 52-week high of $37.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The company has a market capitalization of $1.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.85 and a beta of 1.09. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $26.07 and a 200-day moving average of $29.77.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.02. Dime Community Bancshares had a net margin of 4.50% and a return on equity of 5.43%. The business had revenue of $103.83 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $105.83 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.06 EPS for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 8th were paid a $0.3438 dividend. This is a boost from Dime Community Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.38 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.43%. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 158.73%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on DCOM shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Dime Community Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Stephens dropped their price target on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $36.00 to $32.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $36.88.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Dime Community Bancshares

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DCOM. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares in the 4th quarter worth $39,073,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 16.9% in the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,357,255 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $65,721,000 after buying an additional 340,046 shares during the last quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC bought a new position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares in the 4th quarter worth $10,068,000. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 86.3% in the 4th quarter. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. now owns 620,155 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $19,060,000 after buying an additional 287,195 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,739,614 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $84,202,000 after buying an additional 256,466 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.