Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Takes $222,000 Position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 11,943 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock, valued at approximately $222,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of OCFC. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new position in OceanFirst Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in OceanFirst Financial in the first quarter valued at $39,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in OceanFirst Financial during the 2nd quarter worth $62,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new position in OceanFirst Financial during the 1st quarter worth about $150,000. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 437.0% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 10,525 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $167,000 after buying an additional 8,565 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ:OCFC opened at $20.79 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a twelve month low of $12.93 and a twelve month high of $21.33. The company has a fifty day moving average of $18.20 and a 200-day moving average of $16.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.98 and a beta of 1.01.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $96.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $92.79 million. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 15.28% and a return on equity of 6.08%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 4th. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.71%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on OCFC. Hovde Group raised their price objective on OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.30.

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.