State Street Corp Sells 56,274 Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

State Street Corp decreased its position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 3.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,677,227 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 56,274 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp owned approximately 2.87% of OceanFirst Financial worth $31,180,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in OceanFirst Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new position in OceanFirst Financial in the third quarter worth about $41,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. lifted its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 82.3% in the third quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 3,055 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 1,379 shares during the period. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in OceanFirst Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $62,000. 70.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on OCFC shares. Hovde Group raised their target price on OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 price objective on OceanFirst Financial and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Raymond James upgraded shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.42.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

Shares of OceanFirst Financial stock opened at $17.79 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.17 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.00. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 1 year low of $14.03 and a 1 year high of $21.87. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $19.52 and its 200 day moving average is $17.72.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced 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 company 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is currently 45.71%.

Insider Activity at OceanFirst Financial

In other news, Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.03, for a total transaction of $30,045.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 177,417 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,553,662.51. The trade was a 0.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 5.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

OceanFirst Financial 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.