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 firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $20.67.

Several research firms have weighed in on OCFC. Raymond James Financial dropped their price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th.

Institutional Trading of OceanFirst Financial

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of OCFC. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 911.7% in the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 10,542 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $191,000 after purchasing an additional 9,500 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 30.7% in the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 83,017 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $1,503,000 after purchasing an additional 19,478 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 733,190 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $13,400,000 after purchasing an additional 20,249 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,208,800 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $21,879,000 after purchasing an additional 121,923 shares during the period. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in OceanFirst Financial in the 4th quarter valued at $539,000. 70.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

Shares of OCFC stock traded down $0.25 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $18.68. 286,083 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 292,746. OceanFirst Financial has a 12 month low of $14.29 and a 12 month high of $21.87. The company has a market cap of $1.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company's 50 day moving average price is $17.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.35. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 13.59% and a return on equity of 5.38%. The business had revenue of $97.91 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $95.66 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 16th. Investors of record on Monday, May 5th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 5th. OceanFirst Financial's dividend payout ratio is currently 52.29%.

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.