13,687 Shares in OceanFirst Financial Corp. $OCFC Purchased by EP Wealth Advisors LLC

EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 13,687 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 132.3% during the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 7,325 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $125,000 after acquiring an additional 4,172 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new position in OceanFirst Financial in the first quarter valued at $175,000. PharVision Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in OceanFirst Financial in the 4th quarter valued at $192,000. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 882 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in OceanFirst Financial by 25.8% during the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 13,132 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $223,000 after buying an additional 2,696 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ OCFC opened at $17.99 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.76 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $17.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.17. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 1 year low of $14.29 and a 1 year high of $21.87.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $99.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.26 million. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 12.89% and a return on equity of 5.22%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Zacks Research cut OceanFirst Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, OceanFirst Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.67.

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.