Royce & Associates LP Boosts Holdings in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Royce & Associates LP boosted its position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 763,840 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after purchasing an additional 30,399 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP owned about 1.31% of OceanFirst Financial worth $13,826,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of OCFC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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 buying an additional 157,711 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 299,434 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $5,566,000 after buying an additional 34,458 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised 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 buying an additional 27,579 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 28.2% during the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 29,519 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $534,000 after buying an additional 6,496 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Systematic Financial Management LP raised 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 buying an additional 89,099 shares in the last quarter. 70.98% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on OCFC. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Raymond James upgraded shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Hovde Group decreased their target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, OceanFirst Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.83.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

Shares of OceanFirst Financial stock opened at $17.19 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.01 billion, a PE ratio of 10.42 and a beta of 1.03. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 12-month low of $14.03 and a 12-month high of $21.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $18.47.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 14.45% and a return on equity of 5.75%. As a group, equities analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.48%.

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.