Great Lakes Advisors LLC Acquires New Position in Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM)

Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 148,766 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,572,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of DCOM. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its stake in Dime Community Bancshares by 58.0% during the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,782 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 654 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 50.8% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,697 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 909 shares during the period. USA Financial Formulas purchased a new stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $92,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 17.4% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,448 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $106,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 5,397 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $155,000 after buying an additional 465 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DCOM has been the subject of several analyst reports. Stephens raised shares of Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $30.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Dime Community Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $36.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Dime Community Bancshares currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Dime Community Bancshares news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L sold 9,815 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.20, for a total transaction of $306,228.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 37,147 shares in the company, valued at $1,158,986.40. This represents a 20.90 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Raymond A. Nielsen sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.25, for a total transaction of $93,750.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 41,185 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,287,031.25. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders purchased 1,729 shares of company stock valued at $48,021. Company insiders own 9.10% of the company’s stock.

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ:DCOM opened at $28.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.46 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $30.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.72. Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $17.49 and a fifty-two week high of $37.60.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.02). Dime Community Bancshares had a return on equity of 5.43% and a net margin of 4.50%. Equities research analysts forecast that Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.06 EPS for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 24th. Investors of record on Friday, January 17th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.57%. Dime Community Bancshares’s payout ratio is currently 169.49%.

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.