DA Davidson Issues Positive Forecast for OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) Stock Price

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) had its price target raised by DA Davidson from $20.00 to $22.00 in a research note released on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the savings and loans company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Hovde Group boosted their price target on OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the company 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 stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, OceanFirst Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.75.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ OCFC opened at $20.19 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.42 and a beta of 1.01. 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 has a 50-day moving average of $18.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $17.01. OceanFirst Financial has a 1 year low of $13.41 and a 1 year high of $21.34.

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

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.71%.

Insider Transactions at OceanFirst Financial

In related news, Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of the company’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 value of $30,045.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 177,417 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,553,662.51. This represents a 0.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 5.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On OceanFirst Financial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of OCFC. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 31.9% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 52,792 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $866,000 after buying an additional 12,754 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 59,216.3% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 51,012 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $837,000 after buying an additional 50,926 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in OceanFirst Financial in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $172,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,475,107 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $57,027,000 after purchasing an additional 105,764 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the 1st quarter worth $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.