D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Sells 87,709 Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lessened its holdings in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 78.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 24,636 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 87,709 shares during the quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.’s holdings in OceanFirst Financial were worth $446,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in OCFC. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 27.5% in the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 140,665 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $2,546,000 after purchasing an additional 30,373 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 13.0% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 299,434 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $5,566,000 after acquiring an additional 34,458 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the fourth quarter worth approximately $446,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the 4th quarter worth $356,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 11,728 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $212,000 after purchasing an additional 882 shares during the last quarter. 70.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

OCFC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James reduced their price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Hovde Group cut their price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Four 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.67.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

OCFC stock opened at $16.62 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $970.34 million, a P/E ratio of 10.07 and a beta of 0.99. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $16.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.87. 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.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last issued its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $97.91 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $95.66 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.75% and a net margin of 14.45%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 5th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.81%. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.29%.

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.