UBS Group AG Grows Stake in OceanFirst Financial Corp. $OCFC

UBS Group AG increased its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 66.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 165,402 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after purchasing an additional 66,185 shares during the quarter. UBS Group AG owned approximately 0.29% of OceanFirst Financial worth $2,969,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,407,118 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $61,158,000 after purchasing an additional 9,154 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 180,000 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $3,231,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC purchased a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the fourth quarter worth about $484,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 23,967 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $430,000 after purchasing an additional 1,630 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Byrne Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the fourth quarter worth about $155,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

OCFC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded OceanFirst Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, DA Davidson increased their target price on OceanFirst Financial from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, OceanFirst Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.67.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ OCFC opened at $18.72 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.08 billion, a PE ratio of 16.00 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $18.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 1-year low of $16.09 and a 1-year high of $20.61.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $103.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $143.25 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.35% and a net margin of 10.04%. On average, research analysts predict that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 27th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 27th. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.38%.

About OceanFirst Financial

OceanFirst Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: OCFC) is a bank holding company headquartered in Toms River, New Jersey, that provides a full range of community banking and financial services through its principal subsidiary, OceanFirst Bank. Established in the early 20th century, the company has built its business around serving the deposit, lending and wealth management needs of individuals, small businesses, municipalities and nonprofit organizations across New Jersey and portions of New York.

The company’s core activities include accepting consumer and business deposits, making commercial, municipal and consumer loans, and offering residential mortgage financing.