OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $21.60.

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Zacks Research upgraded OceanFirst Financial from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $23.00 price objective (up from $21.00) on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a report on Monday. Finally, DA Davidson started coverage on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a report on Monday, October 27th. They set a “buy” rating and a $19.00 target price for the company.

Institutional Trading of OceanFirst Financial

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of OCFC. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 61.6% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 31,441 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,987 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 7.9% in the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 41,609 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $708,000 after buying an additional 3,033 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 40.8% in the first quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 21,744 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $370,000 after buying an additional 6,300 shares in the last quarter. Denali Advisors LLC acquired a new position in OceanFirst Financial during the first quarter worth $403,000. Finally, Choreo LLC acquired a new position in OceanFirst Financial during the first quarter worth $363,000. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Down 1.7%

OceanFirst Financial stock opened at $18.18 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $18.19 and a 200-day moving average of $17.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. OceanFirst Financial has a twelve month low of $14.29 and a twelve month high of $21.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.04 billion, a PE ratio of 14.09 and a beta of 1.02.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 14th. The savings and loans company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $93.08 million for the quarter. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 11.77% and a return on equity of 5.00%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.4%. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.02%.

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.