OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) Price Target Raised to $21.50

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) had its price objective boosted by Hovde Group from $19.50 to $21.50 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the savings and loans company’s stock.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a market perform rating and set a $18.00 price objective (down from $19.00) on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $18.90.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ:OCFC opened at $18.15 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.07 billion, a PE ratio of 10.61 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. OceanFirst Financial has a fifty-two week low of $12.01 and a fifty-two week high of $18.98.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $170.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.93 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.85% and a net margin of 14.78%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.46 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.58 earnings per share for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Investors of record on Monday, August 5th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 5th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.41%. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On OceanFirst Financial

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in OceanFirst Financial in the first quarter worth $39,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in OceanFirst Financial in the second quarter worth $62,000. EMC Capital Management purchased a new stake in OceanFirst Financial in the first quarter worth $150,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in OceanFirst Financial in the first quarter worth $172,000. 70.98% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.