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

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the five research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $18.90.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on OCFC shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $18.00 target price (down from $19.00) on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Hovde Group upped their price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On OceanFirst Financial

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in OCFC. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 834,391 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $14,485,000 after buying an additional 139,047 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 70.4% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 61,829 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $1,073,000 after acquiring an additional 25,551 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 24,809 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $431,000 after purchasing an additional 3,475 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 17,434 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $303,000 after purchasing an additional 1,016 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Trexquant Investment LP lifted its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 200.1% during the fourth quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 67,040 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $1,164,000 after purchasing an additional 44,698 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Trading Down 1.0 %

OCFC traded down $0.18 during trading on Friday, hitting $18.73. 133,187 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 307,867. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $17.26 and a 200 day moving average of $15.95. OceanFirst Financial has a 12-month low of $12.01 and a 12-month high of $18.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.95 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $170.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.93 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.85% and a net margin of 14.78%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.46 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.58 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Investors of record on Monday, August 5th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 5th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.27%. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

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.