Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) gapped down prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $31.23, but opened at $29.05. Dime Community Bancshares shares last traded at $30.83, with a volume of 10,184 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on DCOM. Stephens raised Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Piper Sandler raised Dime Community Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on Dime Community Bancshares from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Dime Community Bancshares has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $36.40.

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $1.20 billion, a PE ratio of 52.23 and a beta of 1.05. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average price of $32.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.37.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.02). Dime Community Bancshares had a net margin of 4.50% and a return on equity of 5.43%. Research analysts forecast that Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 17th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 17th. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 169.49%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L bought 29,000 shares of Dime Community Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $32.00 per share, for a total transaction of $928,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 1,044,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,415,072. The trade was a 2.86 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Michael Fegan sold 2,000 shares of Dime Community Bancshares stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.76, for a total value of $71,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 20,155 shares in the company, valued at $720,742.80. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 9.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Royce & Associates LP lifted its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 47.4% during the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 503,653 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $14,505,000 after purchasing an additional 162,004 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 91.0% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 75,732 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $2,181,000 after purchasing an additional 36,076 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 120.9% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 480,944 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $13,851,000 after purchasing an additional 263,225 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 17.4% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,448 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $106,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Systematic Financial Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 15.1% during the third quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,090,834 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $31,416,000 after purchasing an additional 143,402 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

About Dime Community Bancshares

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.