Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Short Interest Down 21.5% in November

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on DCOM. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 21st. Raymond James boosted their target price 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, Stephens raised shares of 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.40.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L acquired 29,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were bought at an average cost 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 in the company, valued at $33,415,072. The trade was a 2.86 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 9.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Dime Community Bancshares

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Dime Community Bancshares by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,479,855 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $47,762,000 after purchasing an additional 19,999 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 4.8% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 693,457 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $13,334,000 after acquiring an additional 31,853 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Dime Community Bancshares during the 2nd quarter worth $400,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 46.4% in the 2nd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 18,788 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $383,000 after acquiring an additional 5,951 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 496.9% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,805 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $98,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. 75.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Dime Community Bancshares Price Performance

DCOM stock opened at $35.88 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The company’s 50-day moving average is $31.26 and its 200-day moving average is $25.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.40 billion, a PE ratio of 23.92 and a beta of 0.99. Dime Community Bancshares has a 1 year low of $17.29 and a 1 year high of $37.60.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last announced 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). Dime Community Bancshares had a net margin of 9.65% and a return on equity of 5.58%. The firm had revenue of $171.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.65 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

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