CenterBook Partners LP Buys Shares of 17,298 Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. $DCOM

CenterBook Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 17,298 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock, valued at approximately $516,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust bought a new stake in Dime Community Bancshares during the 2nd quarter worth $97,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 15.1% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,448 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $133,000 after purchasing an additional 584 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 326.4% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 5,808 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $156,000 after purchasing an additional 4,446 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares during the second quarter worth about $229,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC acquired a new position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares in the second quarter valued at approximately $235,000. 75.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on DCOM shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Dime Community Bancshares in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Stephens raised their target price on Dime Community Bancshares from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Dime Community Bancshares from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Dime Community Bancshares has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.33.

Dime Community Bancshares Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of Dime Community Bancshares stock opened at $34.27 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a PE ratio of 14.52 and a beta of 1.11. Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. has a 52 week low of $23.25 and a 52 week high of $36.86. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $32.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 21st. The savings and loans company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.09. Dime Community Bancshares had a return on equity of 9.12% and a net margin of 15.15%.The company had revenue of $123.85 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $118.14 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Dime Community Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 16th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 16th. Dime Community Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.37%.

Insider Transactions at Dime Community Bancshares

In other news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L sold 20,339 shares of Dime Community Bancshares stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.96, for a total transaction of $690,712.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,013,819 shares in the company, valued at $34,429,293.24. This trade represents a 1.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Stuart H. Lubow sold 19,550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.07, for a total transaction of $685,618.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 202,648 shares in the company, valued at $7,106,865.36. This represents a 8.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 53,360 shares of company stock valued at $1,844,734 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

Dime Community Bancshares Profile

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc is the bank holding company for Dime Community Bank, headquartered in Hauppauge, New York. Through its subsidiary, the company offers a comprehensive suite of banking and financial services to both individual and commercial customers. With a network of branches spanning the New York metropolitan area and South Florida, Dime Community Bancshares emphasizes relationship banking and local decision-making.

The company’s core lending activities include commercial and multifamily real estate loans, construction and land development financing, and one-to-four-family residential mortgage lending.