Analysts Set OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) PT at $19.30

Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the five analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $19.30.

A number of research firms have weighed in on OCFC. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Hovde Group increased their price objective on OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th.

Insider Transactions at OceanFirst Financial

In related news, Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.03, for a total transaction of $30,045.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 177,417 shares in the company, valued at $3,553,662.51. The trade was a 0.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 5.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of OceanFirst Financial

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 587.2% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,082,855 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $20,130,000 after purchasing an additional 925,283 shares in the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP raised its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 43.7% during the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 733,441 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $13,635,000 after buying an additional 223,203 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 20.8% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 956,320 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $15,196,000 after acquiring an additional 164,626 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in OceanFirst Financial by 24.4% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 807,280 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $12,828,000 after acquiring an additional 158,590 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in OceanFirst Financial by 3.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,475,107 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $57,027,000 after purchasing an additional 105,764 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

Shares of OCFC opened at $20.49 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $18.39 and a 200 day moving average of $16.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. OceanFirst Financial has a 12 month low of $13.41 and a 12 month high of $21.34. The company has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.71 and a beta of 1.01.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $96.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $92.79 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 6.08% and a net margin of 15.28%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 4th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.90%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is 45.71%.

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.