Intech Investment Management LLC Takes $192,000 Position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 10,353 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of OCFC. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 32.6% in the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 272,243 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $4,326,000 after purchasing an additional 66,918 shares during the period. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. raised its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 105.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 69,981 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $1,112,000 after buying an additional 35,994 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP lifted its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 43.7% during the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 733,441 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $13,635,000 after acquiring an additional 223,203 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 254.6% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 40,214 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $639,000 after acquiring an additional 28,874 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $12,828,000 after acquiring an additional 158,590 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on OCFC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Hovde Group upped their price target 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. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Wednesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.42.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other OceanFirst Financial news, Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 5.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

Shares of OCFC opened at $20.27 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a twelve month low of $14.03 and a twelve month high of $21.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.58 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a 50 day moving average of $19.26 and a 200-day moving average of $17.40.

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

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.95%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend 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.