American Century Companies Inc. Has $23.61 Million Holdings in OceanFirst Financial Corp. $OCFC

American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,340,968 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,590 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 2.34% of OceanFirst Financial worth $23,614,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,516,177 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $59,810,000 after purchasing an additional 61,515 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in OceanFirst Financial by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,731,785 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $29,458,000 after buying an additional 56,526 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 7.3% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,072,375 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $18,241,000 after buying an additional 72,850 shares in the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 0.8% in the first quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 971,994 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $16,534,000 after acquiring an additional 7,348 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the first quarter valued at about $13,160,000. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on OCFC. DA Davidson started coverage on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Monday, October 27th. They set a “buy” rating and a $19.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded OceanFirst Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $20.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $23.00 price objective (up previously from $21.00) on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Zacks Research raised OceanFirst Financial from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.60.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ OCFC opened at $19.00 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $18.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.73 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 1 year low of $14.29 and a 1 year high of $20.83.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, June 14th. The savings and loans company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.00% and a net margin of 11.77%.The firm had revenue of $93.08 million during the quarter. As a group, research analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 3rd. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is currently 62.02%.

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.