Rafferty Asset Management LLC Decreases Holdings in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Rafferty Asset Management LLC trimmed its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 22.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 52,093 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 15,225 shares during the quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in OceanFirst Financial were worth $943,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in OceanFirst Financial by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 19,454 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $352,000 after acquiring an additional 716 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its position in OceanFirst Financial by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 11,728 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $212,000 after acquiring an additional 882 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in OceanFirst Financial by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 32,732 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $592,000 after acquiring an additional 1,141 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its position in OceanFirst Financial by 807.9% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,843 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 1,640 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers grew its position in OceanFirst Financial by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 94,274 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $1,706,000 after acquiring an additional 1,863 shares during the last quarter. 70.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on OCFC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Hovde Group reduced their price target on OceanFirst Financial from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Raymond James reduced their price target on OceanFirst Financial from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, OceanFirst Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.67.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

Shares of OCFC stock opened at $16.96 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $990.19 million, a P/E ratio of 10.28 and a beta of 0.99. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $14.03 and a fifty-two week high of $21.87. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $16.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $17.95. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35. The firm had revenue of $97.91 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $95.66 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.75% and a net margin of 14.45%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 5th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.72%. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.29%.

OceanFirst Financial 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.