OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the five research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $18.20.

OCFC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TheStreet upgraded OceanFirst Financial from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Raymond James lowered their price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $19.00 target price (down from $22.00) on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a report on Friday, April 19th.

OceanFirst Financial Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of OCFC stock opened at $14.99 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $892.35 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.77 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $15.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $15.43. OceanFirst Financial has a 1 year low of $12.01 and a 1 year high of $19.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.34%. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On OceanFirst Financial

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in OCFC. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in OceanFirst Financial by 1.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,295,098 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $47,680,000 after acquiring an additional 57,423 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,394,141 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $19,660,000 after purchasing an additional 139,646 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,234,836 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $17,868,000 after buying an additional 40,030 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,046,061 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $18,160,000 after buying an additional 66,868 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in OceanFirst Financial by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 834,391 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $14,485,000 after buying an additional 139,047 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

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.