Insider Selling: Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) Director Sells 7,500 Shares of Stock

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Director Basswood Capital Management, L sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.83, for a total transaction of $261,225.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 1,006,319 shares in the company, valued at $35,050,090.77. The trade was a 0.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Basswood Capital Management, L also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, January 30th, Basswood Capital Management, L sold 20,339 shares of Dime Community Bancshares stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.96, for a total transaction of $690,712.44.

Dime Community Bancshares Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ:DCOM traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $35.44. 267,478 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 343,026. The company has a market capitalization of $1.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.02 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The company’s 50 day moving average is $31.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.60. Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. has a twelve month low of $23.25 and a twelve month high of $36.47.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 21st. The savings and loans company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.09. Dime Community Bancshares had a return on equity of 9.12% and a net margin of 15.15%.The company had revenue of $123.85 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $118.14 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 16th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 16th. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Stephens increased their target price on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Zacks Research upgraded Dime Community Bancshares from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Dime Community Bancshares in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their target price on Dime Community Bancshares from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.33.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DCOM. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 3,135 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 132.3% during 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 last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 17.1% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 23,621 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $659,000 after buying an additional 3,443 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 5.9% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 324,976 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $9,060,000 after acquiring an additional 18,195 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 4,231 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.