OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) Reaches New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $21.21 and last traded at $21.21, with a volume of 9232 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $21.07.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

OCFC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 price target on OceanFirst Financial and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. 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 note on Friday, September 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, OceanFirst Financial presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.30.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Down 0.3 %

The firm’s fifty day moving average is $18.33 and its 200-day moving average is $16.83. The company has a market capitalization of $1.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.84 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.01.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $96.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $92.79 million. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 15.28% and a return on equity of 6.08%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 4th. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 177,417 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,553,662.51. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 5.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On OceanFirst Financial

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in OceanFirst Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the second quarter worth $25,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in OceanFirst Financial during the first quarter worth $39,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in OceanFirst Financial in the second quarter valued at $62,000. Finally, EMC Capital Management bought a new stake in OceanFirst Financial during the first quarter valued at $150,000. 70.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.