Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Makes New Investment in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 16,809 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock, valued at approximately $312,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 66,918 shares during the period. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 105.9% in the second quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 69,981 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $1,112,000 after acquiring an additional 35,994 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP increased its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 223,203 shares during the period. Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 254.6% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 40,214 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $639,000 after acquiring an additional 28,874 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Hovde Group raised their price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.42.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Up 0.3 %

OCFC stock opened at $19.94 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $19.33 and its 200 day moving average is $17.50. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a one year low of $14.03 and a one year high of $21.87. The firm has a market cap of $1.17 billion, a PE ratio of 11.39 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.01.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $92.79 million. On average, research analysts forecast that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.01%. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.71%.

Insider Activity

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

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.