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

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid 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 yield of 5.27%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd.

OceanFirst Financial has raised its dividend by an average of 5.6% per year over the last three years. OceanFirst Financial has a payout ratio of 37.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Trading Up 4.0 %

Shares of OceanFirst Financial stock opened at $15.18 on Friday. OceanFirst Financial has a 1 year low of $12.01 and a 1 year high of $19.58. The firm has a market cap of $903.67 million, a PE ratio of 8.88 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.37.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $99.69 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $97.26 million. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 6.19%. Analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 162.1% in the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,562 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 966 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its position in OceanFirst Financial by 118.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,071 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its position in OceanFirst Financial by 279.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,717 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in OceanFirst Financial by 1,240.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 3,213 shares during the period. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can increased its position in OceanFirst Financial by 23.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 919 shares during the period. 70.98% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

OCFC has been the topic of several research reports. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $20.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Friday. TheStreet raised shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Raymond James lifted 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, StockNews.com downgraded shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.