OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Stock Has Consensus Price Target of $20.33

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the five ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $20.33.

OCFC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings cut OceanFirst Financial from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, September 25th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Brian Schaeffer sold 5,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.91, for a total transaction of $104,005.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 83,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,570,815.88. The trade was a 6.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John R. Buran sold 113,463 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.40, for a total transaction of $2,201,182.20. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 5.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in OCFC. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the second quarter valued at about $194,135,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 58.5% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,114,069 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $80,348,000 after acquiring an additional 1,518,636 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 5.6% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,409,103 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $61,499,000 after acquiring an additional 179,364 shares during the period. Systematic Financial Management LP raised its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 15.1% in the 1st quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,383,588 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $24,960,000 after acquiring an additional 181,557 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in OceanFirst Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $12,593,000. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

NASDAQ OCFC opened at $16.08 on Friday. OceanFirst Financial has a 1 year low of $16.06 and a 1 year high of $20.61. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $18.38 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. The company has a market cap of $1.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.92 and a beta of 1.02.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The savings and loans company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.43. The firm had revenue of $131.33 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $135.62 million. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 5.34%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 10th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 10th. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is currently 94.12%.

About OceanFirst Financial

OceanFirst Financial Corp. is the bank holding company for OceanFirst Bank, a community-focused financial institution headquartered in Toms River, New Jersey. The company provides banking and financial services to individuals, families, businesses and nonprofit organizations through its branch network and digital banking channels.

OceanFirst Bank offers deposit products, including checking, savings, money market and certificate accounts, along with residential mortgage, home equity, commercial real estate, commercial and industrial, consumer and small-business loans.