Brokerages Set OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Price Target at $20.67

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the six brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $20.6667.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th.

Institutional Trading of OceanFirst Financial

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 45,257 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $819,000 after purchasing an additional 3,513 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 94,007 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $1,702,000 after purchasing an additional 14,436 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 154,565 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $2,798,000 after purchasing an additional 8,781 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 19,454 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $352,000 after purchasing an additional 716 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,675,259 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $30,322,000 after purchasing an additional 67,010 shares during the period. 70.98% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

OceanFirst Financial Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of OCFC stock traded down $0.28 on Monday, hitting $17.26. 41,882 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 302,970. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $17.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $990.09 million, a PE ratio of 12.23 and a beta of 1.04. OceanFirst Financial has a twelve month low of $14.29 and a twelve month high of $21.87.

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

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.6%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 4th. OceanFirst Financial's payout ratio is 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.