OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Declares $0.20 Quarterly Dividend

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share by the savings and loans company on Friday, May 17th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.27%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd.

OceanFirst Financial has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.6% annually over the last three years. OceanFirst Financial has a payout ratio of 37.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect OceanFirst Financial to earn $2.09 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.3%.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Up 4.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:OCFC opened at $15.18 on Friday. OceanFirst Financial has a 12 month low of $12.01 and a 12 month high of $19.58. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $15.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $15.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market cap of $903.67 million, a P/E ratio of 8.88 and a beta of 1.00.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $99.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $97.26 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of OceanFirst Financial

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP raised its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 162.1% in the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,562 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 966 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 118.6% in the 2nd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,974 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,071 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 279.6% in the 1st quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,331 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 1,717 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 1,240.5% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,472 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 3,213 shares during the period. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can raised its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 23.0% in the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 4,917 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $103,000 after acquiring an additional 919 shares during the period. 70.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on OCFC shares. TheStreet raised shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Friday. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, OceanFirst Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.50.

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.