OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Consensus Rating: OceanFirst Financial Corp. has received an average recommendation of "Hold" from seven research firms, with varying ratings including one sell, four holds, one buy, and one strong buy.
• Recent Earnings Report: The company reported $0.31 earnings per share in its latest earnings release, falling short of the consensus estimate of $0.33, alongside a revenue of $99.37 million compared to the expected $101.26 million.
• Dividend Announcement: OceanFirst Financial recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, representing an annualized yield of 4.3% with a payout ratio of 56.74%.

Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the seven research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $20.6667.

Separately, Zacks Research lowered shares of OceanFirst Financial from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Monday, September 1st.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

OCFC stock traded down $0.33 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $18.34. 323,967 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 285,681. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $17.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.01. OceanFirst Financial has a 52 week low of $14.29 and a 52 week high of $21.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a PE ratio of 13.01 and a beta of 1.07.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $99.37 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $101.26 million. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 12.89% and a return on equity of 5.22%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. OceanFirst Financial's payout ratio is 56.74%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 7.0% in the second quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 10,285 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $181,000 after purchasing an additional 673 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 458.0% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 8,526 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $150,000 after acquiring an additional 6,998 shares during the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 13.5% during the second quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 301,802 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $5,315,000 after acquiring an additional 35,998 shares during the last quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the second quarter valued at about $281,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 2.8% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 730,200 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $12,859,000 after acquiring an additional 19,968 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company's stock.

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.