OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $18.00.

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on OCFC shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $18.00 price target (down previously from $19.00) on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Brian Schaeffer sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.49, for a total transaction of $54,215.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 41,868 shares in the company, valued at $648,535.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 5.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On OceanFirst Financial

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 69.7% during the second quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 22,299 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $354,000 after purchasing an additional 9,159 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 182,739 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $2,904,000 after buying an additional 14,987 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at about $441,000. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 437.0% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 10,525 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $167,000 after acquiring an additional 8,565 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,391,127 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $22,505,000 after buying an additional 42,966 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Down 4.8 %

NASDAQ OCFC opened at $17.41 on Friday. OceanFirst Financial has a twelve month low of $12.01 and a twelve month high of $19.58. The stock has a market cap of $1.02 billion, a PE ratio of 10.18 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.00.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.03). OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.87% and a net margin of 14.78%. The firm had revenue of $170.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.93 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.46 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.69 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 16th. Investors of record on Monday, August 5th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.60%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 5th. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

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.