Hovde Group Raises OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) Price Target to $21.50

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) had its target price upped by Hovde Group from $19.50 to $21.50 in a research report released on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports. Hovde Group currently has an outperform rating on the savings and loans company’s stock.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a market perform rating and issued a $18.00 price objective (down from $19.00) on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $18.90.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ:OCFC opened at $18.21 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. OceanFirst Financial has a fifty-two week low of $12.01 and a fifty-two week high of $18.98. The company has a market cap of $1.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.65 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $17.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $15.98.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $170.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.93 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.85% and a net margin of 14.78%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Investors of record on Monday, August 5th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.39%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 5th. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 46.78%.

Institutional Trading of OceanFirst Financial

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in OCFC. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the second quarter worth $25,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in OceanFirst Financial in the first quarter valued at about $39,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in OceanFirst Financial in the second quarter valued at about $62,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the first quarter valued at about $150,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the first quarter worth about $172,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

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.