Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Sells 30,946 Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans decreased its position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 11.4% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 241,297 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 30,946 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in OceanFirst Financial were worth $4,486,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 137,196 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $2,180,000 after buying an additional 658 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 23,023 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $428,000 after acquiring an additional 724 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 17,815 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $331,000 after acquiring an additional 995 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 52,372 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $832,000 after purchasing an additional 1,112 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. 70.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 target price on OceanFirst Financial and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Hovde Group lifted their price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their target price on OceanFirst Financial from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $19.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at OceanFirst Financial

In other news, Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director now 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 5.00% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

Shares of OCFC stock opened at $20.88 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.08. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 12 month low of $13.41 and a 12 month high of $21.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market cap of $1.22 billion, a PE ratio of 11.93 and a beta of 1.01.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.01. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 6.08% and a net margin of 15.28%. The company had revenue of $96.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $92.79 million. Equities research analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.83%. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.71%.

OceanFirst Financial Company Profile

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.