OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) Hits New 12-Month Low – What’s Next?

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) shares reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Friday. The stock traded as low as $16.10 and last traded at $16.1050, with a volume of 1386946 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.42.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on OCFC shares. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings cut OceanFirst Financial from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, September 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.75.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 1.02. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The savings and loans company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.34% and a net margin of 6.38%.The business had revenue of $131.33 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $135.62 million. On average, equities analysts forecast that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.0%. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is 94.12%.

Insider Activity at OceanFirst Financial

In related news, Director John R. Buran sold 113,463 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.40, for a total transaction of $2,201,182.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Brian Schaeffer sold 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.91, for a total transaction of $104,005.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 83,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,570,815.88. This trade represents a 6.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 5.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in OCFC. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the second quarter valued at about $194,135,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 58.5% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,114,069 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $80,348,000 after acquiring an additional 1,518,636 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in OceanFirst Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $12,593,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in OceanFirst Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $10,209,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $9,556,000. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Company Profile

OceanFirst Financial Corp. is the bank holding company for OceanFirst Bank, a community-focused financial institution headquartered in Toms River, New Jersey. The company provides banking and financial services to individuals, families, businesses and nonprofit organizations through its branch network and digital banking channels.

OceanFirst Bank offers deposit products, including checking, savings, money market and certificate accounts, along with residential mortgage, home equity, commercial real estate, commercial and industrial, consumer and small-business loans.