MQS Management LLC Buys New Position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. $OCFC

MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 16,008 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock, valued at approximately $282,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP grew its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 132.3% in the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 7,325 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $125,000 after buying an additional 4,172 shares during the period. Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new stake in OceanFirst Financial in the 1st quarter valued at about $175,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 25.8% in the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 13,132 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $223,000 after buying an additional 2,696 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in OceanFirst Financial in the 1st quarter valued at about $224,000. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in OceanFirst Financial in the 1st quarter valued at about $233,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research cut OceanFirst Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded OceanFirst Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $20.00 to $22.00 in a report on Friday, October 10th. DA Davidson assumed coverage on OceanFirst Financial in a report on Monday. They set a “buy” rating and a $19.00 target price for the company. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $23.00 target price (up previously from $21.00) on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.60.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

OceanFirst Financial stock opened at $18.59 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $18.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.07 billion, a PE ratio of 14.41 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.01. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a one year low of $14.29 and a one year high of $21.87.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 14th. The savings and loans company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $93.08 million for the quarter. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.00% and a net margin of 11.77%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.3%. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is 62.02%.

About OceanFirst Financial

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.