OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the six ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $19.75.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on OCFC shares. Hovde Group raised their target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their target price on OceanFirst Financial from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other OceanFirst Financial news, Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.03, for a total transaction of $30,045.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 177,417 shares in the company, valued at $3,553,662.51. This represents a 0.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 5.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of OceanFirst Financial

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 3.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,475,107 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $57,027,000 after acquiring an additional 105,764 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 32.6% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 272,243 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $4,326,000 after purchasing an additional 66,918 shares during the last quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. raised its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 105.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 69,981 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $1,112,000 after buying an additional 35,994 shares in the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP lifted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 43.7% during the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 733,441 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $13,635,000 after buying an additional 223,203 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning boosted its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 254.6% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 40,214 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $639,000 after buying an additional 28,874 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ OCFC opened at $20.27 on Wednesday. OceanFirst Financial has a twelve month low of $14.03 and a twelve month high of $21.87. The company has a market cap of $1.18 billion, a PE ratio of 11.58 and a beta of 1.04. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $19.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.01. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 6.08% and a net margin of 15.28%. The business had revenue of $96.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $92.79 million. On average, analysts predict that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.71%.

OceanFirst Financial Company Profile

OceanFirst Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for OceanFirst Bank N.A. that provides community banking services to retail and commercial customers. It accepts money market accounts, savings accounts, interest-bearing checking accounts, non-interest-bearing accounts, and time deposits, that includes brokered deposits to retail, government, and business customers.