Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Short Interest Update

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,040,000 shares, a decline of 21.5% from the October 31st total of 2,600,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 263,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.7 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L acquired 29,000 shares of Dime Community Bancshares stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $32.00 per share, with a total value of $928,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 1,044,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,415,072. This trade represents a 2.86 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 9.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Dime Community Bancshares

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 120.9% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 480,944 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $13,851,000 after acquiring an additional 263,225 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 1,546.1% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 217,719 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $4,441,000 after purchasing an additional 204,493 shares during the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP raised its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 47.4% in the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 503,653 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $14,505,000 after purchasing an additional 162,004 shares in the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP lifted its position in 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 valued at $31,416,000 after purchasing an additional 143,402 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 33.9% in the 2nd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 488,554 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $9,967,000 after buying an additional 123,800 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on DCOM. Stephens raised Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $30.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.40.

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of DCOM opened at $35.88 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.92 and a beta of 0.99. Dime Community Bancshares has a 52-week low of $17.29 and a 52-week high of $37.60. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.24.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $171.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter last year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 17th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 17th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.79%. Dime Community Bancshares’s payout ratio is currently 66.67%.

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.