Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the six brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $39.75.

DCOM has been the subject of several analyst reports. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Dime Community Bancshares from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Dime Community Bancshares from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th.

Dime Community Bancshares Trading Down 0.6%

DCOM stock opened at $40.58 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $39.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.95. Dime Community Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $25.63 and a fifty-two week high of $41.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market cap of $1.79 billion, a PE ratio of 17.20 and a beta of 0.99.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 17th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.10%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L sold 32,751 shares of Dime Community Bancshares stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.02, for a total transaction of $1,277,944.02. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,785 shares in the company, valued at $264,750.70. This trade represents a 82.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Raymond A. Nielsen sold 1,650 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.09, for a total transaction of $61,198.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 35,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,320,663.63. This trade represents a 4.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 78,803 shares of company stock worth $3,101,749 in the last ninety days. 7.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of DCOM. Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings 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 worth $645,000 after purchasing an additional 3,135 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 132.3% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 169,503 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $4,726,000 after buying an additional 96,523 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 17.1% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 23,621 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $659,000 after buying an additional 3,443 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 324,976 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $9,060,000 after buying an additional 18,195 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 82,084 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $2,289,000 after buying an additional 4,231 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

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.