John G Ullman & Associates Inc. Acquires Shares of 49,600 OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 49,600 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock, valued at approximately $861,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Boston Partners increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,394,141 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $19,660,000 after buying an additional 139,646 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the 3rd quarter worth $1,015,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 695,344 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $10,062,000 after purchasing an additional 43,649 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 143.3% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 380,529 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $5,506,000 after purchasing an additional 224,146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 17.3% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 517,771 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $7,492,000 after purchasing an additional 76,317 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ:OCFC opened at $15.18 on Friday. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 1 year low of $12.01 and a 1 year high of $19.58. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $15.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.37. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $903.67 million, a PE ratio of 8.88 and a beta of 1.00.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.02. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 6.19%. The business had revenue of $99.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $97.26 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.27%. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on OCFC shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $20.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Friday. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, OceanFirst Financial currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.50.

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.