Piper Sandler Upgrades Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) to Overweight

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) was upgraded by 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 brokerage presently has a $38.00 price target on the savings and loans company’s stock, up from their previous price target of $36.00. Piper Sandler’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 19.78% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Stephens raised Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Dime Community Bancshares has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.60.

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ:DCOM traded down $0.02 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $31.73. The stock had a trading volume of 227,260 shares, compared to its average volume of 312,031. Dime Community Bancshares has a 12-month low of $17.29 and a 12-month high of $37.60. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.87. The stock has a market cap of $1.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.18 and a beta of 1.05. 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 (NASDAQ:DCOM) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.02). Dime Community Bancshares had a net margin of 9.65% and a return on equity of 5.58%. On average, research analysts forecast that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Dime Community Bancshares

In other Dime Community Bancshares news, CTO Michael Fegan sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.76, for a total transaction of $71,520.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 20,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $720,742.80. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Basswood Capital Management, L acquired 29,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was bought at an average price of $32.00 per share, with a total value of $928,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 1,044,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,415,072. This represents a 2.86 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 9.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DCOM. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Dime Community Bancshares by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,173,003 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $44,328,000 after acquiring an additional 13,650 shares during the period. Systematic Financial Management LP increased its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 15.1% during the third quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,090,834 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $31,416,000 after purchasing an additional 143,402 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 1.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 860,009 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $24,773,000 after purchasing an additional 9,978 shares during the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $14,505,000 after purchasing an additional 162,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 120.9% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 480,944 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $13,851,000 after buying an additional 263,225 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

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.