OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Receives Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the six ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $20.67.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on OCFC shares. Raymond James lowered their target price on OceanFirst Financial from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th.

OceanFirst Financial Trading Up 0.8%

OceanFirst Financial stock traded up $0.14 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $16.94. 310,593 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 298,156. The firm has a market capitalization of $989.02 million, a P/E ratio of 10.27 and a beta of 0.99. OceanFirst Financial has a fifty-two week low of $14.03 and a fifty-two week high of $21.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $16.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.76.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.35. The firm had revenue of $97.91 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $95.66 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.75% and a net margin of 14.45%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 5th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.72%. OceanFirst Financial's dividend payout ratio is 52.29%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On OceanFirst Financial

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of OCFC. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 299,434 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $5,566,000 after buying an additional 34,458 shares during the last quarter. EMC Capital Management raised its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 6,001.3% in the 4th quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 9,152 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $166,000 after purchasing an additional 9,002 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 133,122 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $2,410,000 after purchasing an additional 6,444 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 94,274 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $1,706,000 after purchasing an additional 1,863 shares during the period. Finally, Allworth Financial LP bought a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the 4th quarter valued at about $575,000. 70.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

OceanFirst Financial Company 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.