Gator Capital Management LLC Grows Position in Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. $DCOM

Gator Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 109,230 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,792 shares during the period. Gator Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Dime Community Bancshares were worth $3,258,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Systematic Financial Management LP raised its holdings in Dime Community Bancshares by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,228,999 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $33,109,000 after buying an additional 27,463 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 13.1% in the second quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,129,067 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $30,417,000 after acquiring an additional 131,087 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 0.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 978,630 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $26,367,000 after acquiring an additional 4,827 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 15.6% during the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 350,807 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $10,465,000 after purchasing an additional 47,338 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Dime Community Bancshares by 5.9% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 324,976 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $9,060,000 after purchasing an additional 18,195 shares during the period. 75.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Stuart H. Lubow sold 19,550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.07, for a total value of $685,618.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 202,648 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,106,865.36. This represents a 8.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Basswood Capital Management, L sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.83, for a total transaction of $261,225.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 1,006,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,050,090.77. The trade was a 0.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 52,865 shares of company stock worth $1,829,983. Company insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on DCOM. Zacks Research upgraded Dime Community Bancshares from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Stephens increased their price objective on Dime Community Bancshares from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Wall Street Zen lowered Dime Community Bancshares from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Weiss Ratings raised Dime Community Bancshares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Dime Community Bancshares from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.33.

Dime Community Bancshares Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:DCOM opened at $32.00 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.56 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $32.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $30.62. Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $23.25 and a 52-week high of $36.86.

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

Dime Community Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 16th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 16th. Dime Community Bancshares’s payout ratio is 42.37%.

About Dime Community Bancshares

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.