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

Key Points

• OceanFirst Financial Corp. has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from seven research firms, with recommendations varying from sell to strong buy.
• The company's stock recently experienced a 1.9% decline, opening at $17.58, with a market cap of $1.01 billion and a P/E ratio of 12.47.
• OceanFirst Financial announced a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 4.6%.

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC - Get Free Report) has received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the seven research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation, one has issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $20.6667.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 132.3% during the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 7,325 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $125,000 after acquiring an additional 4,172 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 458.0% in 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 buying an additional 6,998 shares during the last quarter. EMC Capital Management raised its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 8.7% in the second quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 9,952 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $175,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the first quarter valued at about $175,000. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised 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 valued at $181,000 after buying an additional 673 shares during the last quarter. 70.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Down 1.9%

Shares of OCFC stock opened at $17.58 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.47 and a beta of 1.07. OceanFirst Financial has a one year low of $14.29 and a one year high of $21.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $17.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.31 EPS 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 5.22% and a net margin of 12.89%. Analysts predict that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.6%. OceanFirst Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.74%.

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.

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