Stephens Upgrades Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) to Overweight

Stephens upgraded shares of Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note released on Monday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $39.00 price objective on the savings and loans company’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $30.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 21st. Raymond James increased their target price on Dime Community Bancshares from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Dime Community Bancshares from $25.50 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered Dime Community Bancshares from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.40.

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Performance

DCOM stock opened at $35.29 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market cap of $1.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.67 and a beta of 0.99. Dime Community Bancshares has a 12-month low of $17.29 and a 12-month high of $36.05. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.20.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $171.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.65 million. Dime Community Bancshares had a net margin of 9.65% and a return on equity of 5.58%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.48 EPS for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 17th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 17th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.83%. Dime Community Bancshares’s payout ratio is 66.67%.

Insider Transactions at Dime Community Bancshares

In other news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L bought 29,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $32.00 per share, with a total value of $928,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 1,044,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,415,072. This represents a 2.86 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 9.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,479,855 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $47,762,000 after purchasing an additional 19,999 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,173,003 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $44,328,000 after purchasing an additional 13,650 shares during the period. Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,090,834 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $31,416,000 after purchasing an additional 143,402 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 860,009 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $24,773,000 after purchasing an additional 9,978 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 693,457 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $13,334,000 after purchasing an additional 31,853 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.