Short Interest in Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Increases By 11.3%

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,460,000 shares, a growth of 11.3% from the December 15th total of 2,210,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 310,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.9 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L bought 29,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $32.00 per share, for a total transaction of $928,000.00. Following the transaction, 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 purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Michael Fegan sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was 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 directly owns 20,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $720,742.80. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 9.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Dime Community Bancshares

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in DCOM. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 0.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,173,003 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $44,328,000 after acquiring an additional 13,650 shares during the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP increased its position in 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 worth $31,416,000 after purchasing an additional 143,402 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in 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 worth $24,773,000 after purchasing an additional 9,978 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 13.9% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 635,265 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $12,959,000 after purchasing an additional 77,284 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP lifted its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 47.4% during the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 503,653 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $14,505,000 after buying an additional 162,004 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on DCOM shares. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of 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 boosted their target price on Dime Community Bancshares from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com lowered Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 21st. Finally, Stephens raised Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $34.20.

Dime Community Bancshares Trading Down 0.3 %

DCOM traded down $0.09 during trading on Friday, reaching $31.96. The company had a trading volume of 225,838 shares, compared to its average volume of 315,361. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.68. 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 company has a market cap of $1.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.31 and a beta of 1.05. Dime Community Bancshares has a 12-month low of $17.29 and a 12-month high of $37.60.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $171.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.65 million. Dime Community Bancshares had a return on equity of 5.58% and a net margin of 9.65%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 17th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.13%. Dime Community Bancshares’s payout ratio is presently 66.67%.

Dime Community Bancshares Company Profile

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.