Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Purchases New Position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Key Points

• Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd has acquired 28,424 shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp., valued at approximately $483,000, as per its Form 13F filing.
• Several institutional investors have also increased their positions in OceanFirst Financial during the fourth quarter, with 70.98% of the stock now held by such investors.
• OceanFirst Financial announced a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, representing an annualized yield of 4.59%.

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 28,424 shares of the savings and loans company's stock, valued at approximately $483,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 807.9% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,843 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 1,640 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the fourth quarter valued at about $57,000. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the fourth quarter worth about $183,000. PharVision Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the fourth quarter worth about $192,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 11,728 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $212,000 after purchasing an additional 882 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

OCFC has been the topic of several research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective 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. Raymond James Financial cut their price objective 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $20.67.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

Shares of OCFC stock traded down $0.12 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $16.76. 60,689 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 302,157. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 12 month low of $14.29 and a 12 month high of $21.87. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $17.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $978.16 million, a PE ratio of 11.89 and a beta of 0.99.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $99.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.26 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.18% and a net margin of 12.89%. On average, research analysts forecast that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.77%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 4th. OceanFirst Financial's payout ratio is currently 56.74%.

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.