Hennessy Advisors Inc. Sells 20,000 Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. decreased its position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 9.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 200,000 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 20,000 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. owned approximately 0.34% of OceanFirst Financial worth $3,620,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 587.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,082,855 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $20,130,000 after purchasing an additional 925,283 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP lifted its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 43.7% in the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 733,441 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $13,635,000 after buying an additional 223,203 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 20.8% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 956,320 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $15,196,000 after buying an additional 164,626 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 24.4% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 807,280 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $12,828,000 after buying an additional 158,590 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,241,191 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $23,074,000 after buying an additional 157,711 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on OCFC shares. Raymond James raised shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Hovde Group increased their price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 target price on OceanFirst Financial and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, OceanFirst Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.42.

Insider Transactions at OceanFirst Financial

In other OceanFirst Financial news, Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of OceanFirst Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.03, for a total transaction of $30,045.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 177,417 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,553,662.51. This trade represents a 0.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 5.00% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

Shares of OCFC opened at $18.76 on Friday. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 52 week low of $14.03 and a 52 week high of $21.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $19.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.72 and a beta of 1.06.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $96.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $92.79 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 6.08% and a net margin of 15.28%. Equities analysts forecast that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.