OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) Trading Down 5.8% – Here’s Why

Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) fell 5.8% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $17.97 and last traded at $17.99. 156,847 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 49% from the average session volume of 308,028 shares. The stock had previously closed at $19.10.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on OCFC. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Hovde Group raised their price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $19.30.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average price is $17.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.35. The company has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.43 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its earnings results 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). OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.85% and a net margin of 14.78%. The business had revenue of $170.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.93 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.46 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.58 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. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.48%. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.78%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 3.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,475,107 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $57,027,000 after acquiring an additional 105,764 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 3.2% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,391,127 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $22,505,000 after acquiring an additional 42,966 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,046,061 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $18,160,000 after buying an additional 66,868 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 20.8% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 956,320 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $15,196,000 after buying an additional 164,626 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 24.4% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 807,280 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $12,828,000 after buying an additional 158,590 shares during the last quarter. 70.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.