OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) Hits New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $20.61 and last traded at $20.4550, with a volume of 10075 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $20.23.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. The firm has a market cap of $1.17 billion, a PE ratio of 15.84 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $18.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.04.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, June 14th. The savings and loans company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $93.08 million during the quarter. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 11.77% and a return on equity of 5.02%. As a group, equities analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 3rd. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is presently 62.02%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On OceanFirst Financial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of OCFC. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in OceanFirst Financial by 97.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,388,304 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $41,963,000 after buying an additional 1,181,553 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in OceanFirst Financial during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $13,160,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 1,226.5% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 464,258 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $7,897,000 after acquiring an additional 429,259 shares during the last quarter. CSM Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the second quarter worth $5,182,000. Finally, Kestrel Investment Management Corp purchased a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the third quarter worth $3,587,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.