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

Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $20.6667.

Separately, Zacks Research cut OceanFirst Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 1st.

Institutional Trading of OceanFirst Financial

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 132.3% in the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 7,325 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $125,000 after buying an additional 4,172 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 458.0% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 8,526 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $150,000 after buying an additional 6,998 shares during the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the first quarter valued at approximately $175,000. EMC Capital Management lifted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 8.7% in the second quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 9,952 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $175,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lifted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 7.0% in the second quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 10,285 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $181,000 after buying an additional 673 shares during the last quarter. 70.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Down 1.8%

OCFC stock opened at $18.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.01 and a beta of 1.07. The business has a 50-day moving average of $17.84 and a 200-day moving average of $17.16. OceanFirst Financial has a fifty-two week low of $14.29 and a fifty-two week high of $21.87.

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

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.4%. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 56.74%.

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.