Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Buys 13,650 Shares of Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,173,003 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,650 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned 5.58% of Dime Community Bancshares worth $44,328,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Foundry Partners LLC increased its position in Dime Community Bancshares by 31.0% in the 1st quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 205,409 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $3,956,000 after acquiring an additional 48,619 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its position in Dime Community Bancshares by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 693,457 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $13,334,000 after purchasing an additional 31,853 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Dime Community Bancshares by 21.3% in the 1st quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 364,754 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $7,025,000 after buying an additional 64,100 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 13.9% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 635,265 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $12,959,000 after buying an additional 77,284 shares during the period. Finally, Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. raised its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 22.2% during the second quarter. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. now owns 298,345 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $6,086,000 after acquiring an additional 54,193 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com lowered Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Dime Community Bancshares from $25.50 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Dime Community Bancshares from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $26.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Raymond James raised Dime Community Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $29.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.25.

Dime Community Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of DCOM stock opened at $28.09 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.78 and a beta of 1.00. Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. has a 12-month low of $17.29 and a 12-month high of $30.12. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $24.98 and a 200-day moving average of $21.25.

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.01. Dime Community Bancshares had a return on equity of 6.58% and a net margin of 9.98%. The business had revenue of $171.23 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $82.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Dime Community Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.56%. Dime Community Bancshares’s payout ratio is 56.18%.

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.