OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Given Average Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Analysts' consensus: Five firms rate OceanFirst Financial as a "Hold" (four holds, one buy) with an average 12‑month price target of $21.33, following recent downgrades from Raymond James and DA Davidson and a modest upgrade from Wall Street Zen.
• Recent fundamentals and shareholder signals: the company beat Q‑quarter estimates with $0.41 EPS vs $0.39 and $104.69M revenue, has a $1.03B market cap and P/E of 15.41, pays a $0.20 quarterly dividend (4.5% yield, ~69% payout ratio), and is ~71% institutionally owned.

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Hold" by the five ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $21.3333.

OCFC has been the topic of several research reports. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of OceanFirst Financial from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 31st. DA Davidson downgraded OceanFirst Financial from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded OceanFirst Financial from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c)" rating on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd.

Institutional Trading of OceanFirst Financial

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 34,193 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $582,000 after buying an additional 1,461 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in OceanFirst Financial by 5.5% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 140,481 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $2,390,000 after acquiring an additional 7,359 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 8.6% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 142,122 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $2,417,000 after acquiring an additional 11,262 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 107.0% during the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 88,353 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $1,503,000 after acquiring an additional 45,673 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey raised its position in OceanFirst Financial by 13.6% in the second quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 13,283 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,594 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.98% of the company's stock.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

Shares of OceanFirst Financial stock opened at $17.88 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.41 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $18.53. OceanFirst Financial has a 12 month low of $14.29 and a 12 month high of $20.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.02. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.14% and a net margin of 10.33%.The firm had revenue of $104.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $103.20 million. As a group, analysts predict that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 2nd were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 2nd. OceanFirst Financial's payout ratio is presently 68.97%.

About OceanFirst Financial

OceanFirst Financial Corporation NASDAQ: OCFC is a bank holding company headquartered in Toms River, New Jersey, that provides a full range of community banking and financial services through its principal subsidiary, OceanFirst Bank. Established in the early 20th century, the company has built its business around serving the deposit, lending and wealth management needs of individuals, small businesses, municipalities and nonprofit organizations across New Jersey and portions of New York.

The company's core activities include accepting consumer and business deposits, making commercial, municipal and consumer loans, and offering residential mortgage financing.

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