Empowered Funds LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Empowered Funds LLC lessened its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 17.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 126,678 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 27,190 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC owned about 0.22% of OceanFirst Financial worth $2,355,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of OCFC. Royce & Associates LP grew its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 43.7% in the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 733,441 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $13,635,000 after purchasing an additional 223,203 shares during the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in OceanFirst Financial during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in 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 buying an additional 995 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in OceanFirst Financial in the third quarter valued at about $222,000. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 3.2% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at OceanFirst Financial

In related news, Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.03, for a total transaction of $30,045.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 177,417 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,553,662.51. This represents a 0.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 5.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

OceanFirst Financial Stock Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ:OCFC opened at $20.12 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.50 and a beta of 1.01. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 1-year low of $13.41 and a 1-year high of $21.34. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $18.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

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

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.98%. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is currently 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.