OceanFirst Financial’s (OCFC) “Equal Weight” Rating Reaffirmed at Stephens

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Stephens in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $22.00 target price on the savings and loans company’s stock. Stephens’ target price indicates a potential upside of 16.46% from the stock’s previous close.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the company. Raymond James upgraded OceanFirst Financial from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 price objective on OceanFirst Financial and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.75.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:OCFC traded down $0.26 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $18.89. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 34,675 shares, compared to its average volume of 285,941. OceanFirst Financial has a fifty-two week low of $14.03 and a fifty-two week high of $21.87. The company has a market capitalization of $1.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.24.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 6.08% and a net margin of 15.28%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other OceanFirst Financial news, Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 0.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 5.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in OCFC. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,421,373 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $26,428,000 after acquiring an additional 27,579 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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 valued at $23,074,000 after acquiring an additional 157,711 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 587.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 925,283 shares during the period. Systematic Financial Management LP lifted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 10.8% during the 3rd quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 917,085 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $17,049,000 after acquiring an additional 89,099 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position 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 valued at $12,828,000 after acquiring an additional 158,590 shares during the period. 70.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.