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

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM - Get Free Report) declared 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 2.94%.

Dime Community Bancshares has increased its dividend by an average of 1.0% annually over the last three years. Dime Community Bancshares has a dividend payout ratio of 36.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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

Shares of DCOM traded down $0.84 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $33.96. 237,535 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 237,140. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $33.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.68. Dime Community Bancshares has a 12-month low of $17.29 and a 12-month high of $37.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.64 and a beta of 1.03.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.29 earnings per share 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 analysts' expectations of $86.65 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Dime Community Bancshares will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Dime Community Bancshares

In related news, CTO Michael Fegan sold 2,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 20,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $720,742.80. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 purchased at an average price of $32.00 per share, for a total transaction of $928,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 1,044,221 shares in the company, valued at $33,415,072. This represents a 2.86 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 9.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on DCOM shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective 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. StockNews.com cut shares of Dime Community Bancshares from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, September 21st. Stephens raised shares of Dime Community Bancshares from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price target on Dime Community Bancshares from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. One investment 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $34.20.

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.