OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Shares Sold by Swiss National Bank

Swiss National Bank reduced its position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 10.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 127,633 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 15,200 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.21% of OceanFirst Financial worth $2,359,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 115,464.3% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,677,082 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $354,388,000 after buying an additional 16,662,651 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,350,027 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $118,365,000 after purchasing an additional 457,554 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,383,579 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $71,901,000 after buying an additional 64,571 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,026,809 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $60,838,000 after buying an additional 93,848 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 44.5% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,352,445 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $49,990,000 after buying an additional 724,377 shares in the last quarter. 70.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. TheStreet raised shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Monday, August 7th. Finally, Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $20.00 target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Friday, July 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.75.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Down 2.3 %

OCFC opened at $16.93 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $17.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.37. The company has a market cap of $1.01 billion, a PE ratio of 6.94 and a beta of 0.94. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 1 year low of $12.81 and a 1 year high of $24.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The savings and loans company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $101.04 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $101.20 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 8.70% and a net margin of 25.28%. Sell-side analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 18th. Investors of record on Monday, August 7th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.73%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 4th. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.79%.

OceanFirst Financial Profile

OceanFirst Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for OceanFirst Bank N.A. that provides community banking services. It accepts money market accounts, savings accounts, interest-bearing checking accounts, non-interest-bearing demand deposits, and time deposits to retail, government, and business customers.