Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) to Issue $0.25 Quarterly Dividend

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 17th will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the savings and loans company on Friday, January 24th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.12%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 17th.

Dime Community Bancshares has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.0% annually over the last three years. Dime Community Bancshares has a payout ratio of 36.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Dime Community Bancshares to earn $2.78 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.0%.

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ:DCOM opened at $32.04 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $33.09 and its 200 day moving average is $26.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.25 billion, a PE ratio of 21.36 and a beta of 1.03. Dime Community Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $17.29 and a fifty-two week high of $37.60.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.65 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on DCOM shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Stephens upgraded Dime Community Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $39.00 in a report on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 21st. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on Dime Community Bancshares from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $34.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Basswood Capital Management, L bought 29,000 shares of Dime Community Bancshares stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $33,415,072. This represents a 2.86 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Michael Fegan sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.76, for a total transaction of $71,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 20,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $720,742.80. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 9.10% of the company’s stock.

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.