Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) Rating Increased to Overweight at Piper Sandler

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Piper Sandler from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The firm currently has a $38.00 target price on the savings and loans company’s stock, up from their previous target price of $36.00. Piper Sandler’s price target suggests a potential upside of 19.78% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Dime Community Bancshares from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Stephens upgraded shares of Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $39.00 in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $36.60.

Dime Community Bancshares Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ DCOM traded down $0.02 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $31.73. The stock had a trading volume of 227,260 shares, compared to its average volume of 312,031. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $33.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. Dime Community Bancshares has a twelve month low of $17.29 and a twelve month high of $37.60. The firm has a market cap of $1.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.18 and a beta of 1.05.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.02). Dime Community Bancshares had a net margin of 9.65% and a return on equity of 5.58%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Michael Fegan sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 20,155 shares in the company, valued at $720,742.80. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Basswood Capital Management, L purchased 29,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were bought at an average price of $32.00 per share, with a total value of $928,000.00. Following the acquisition, 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 disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 9.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in DCOM. Royce & Associates LP increased its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 47.4% in 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. Barclays PLC boosted its position in Dime Community Bancshares by 91.0% in 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 during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in Dime Community Bancshares by 120.9% in 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 during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 12.8% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 211,604 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $4,317,000 after purchasing an additional 24,000 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 17.4% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,448 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $106,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. 75.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.