OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the six brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $21.00.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on OCFC. Piper Sandler set a $19.00 price objective on OceanFirst Financial and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 12th. DA Davidson boosted their price target on OceanFirst Financial from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded OceanFirst Financial from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday.

OceanFirst Financial Trading Up 0.5%

OceanFirst Financial stock opened at $19.62 on Thursday. OceanFirst Financial has a 52-week low of $16.09 and a 52-week high of $20.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.77 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $18.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.65.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $103.19 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $143.25 million. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 10.04% and a return on equity of 5.35%. Sell-side analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.84 earnings per share for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 8th. Investors of record on Monday, April 27th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 27th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.1%. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.38%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On OceanFirst Financial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of OCFC. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC acquired a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the 4th quarter worth approximately $484,000. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 66.7% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 165,402 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $2,969,000 after acquiring an additional 66,185 shares in the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,202,031 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $21,576,000 after acquiring an additional 95,061 shares during the period. Byrne Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $155,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 6.8% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 18,938 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $342,000 after acquiring an additional 1,205 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Company Profile

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.