John G Ullman & Associates Inc. Buys Shares of 49,600 OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 49,600 shares of the savings and loans company's stock, valued at approximately $861,000. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. owned 0.08% of OceanFirst Financial as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 164.9% during the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 295,234 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $5,125,000 after buying an additional 183,796 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. purchased a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,701,000. Strs Ohio increased its position in OceanFirst Financial by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 42,300 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $734,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new position in OceanFirst Financial during the fourth quarter worth approximately $599,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in OceanFirst Financial by 1,240.5% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,472 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 3,213 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on OCFC. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of OceanFirst Financial from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. TheStreet raised shares of OceanFirst Financial from a "c+" rating to a "b-" rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Stephens reissued an "equal weight" rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $18.50.

OceanFirst Financial Trading Up 4.0 %

Shares of OceanFirst Financial stock traded up $0.59 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $15.18. The company's stock had a trading volume of 358,568 shares, compared to its average volume of 239,950. The business has a fifty day moving average of $15.34 and a 200 day moving average of $15.38. The company has a market capitalization of $903.67 million, a PE ratio of 8.88 and a beta of 1.00. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 1-year low of $12.01 and a 1-year high of $19.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. OceanFirst Financial's payout ratio is 46.78%.

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.