OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Director Sells $30,045.00 in Stock

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of OceanFirst Financial 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,553,662.51. This trade represents a 0.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ OCFC opened at $20.49 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $18.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 12-month low of $13.41 and a 12-month high of $21.34. The company has a market cap of $1.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.71 and a beta of 1.01.

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

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.90%. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.71%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in OCFC. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 587.2% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,082,855 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $20,130,000 after purchasing an additional 925,283 shares during the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 43.7% in the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 733,441 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $13,635,000 after acquiring an additional 223,203 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in 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 valued at $15,196,000 after purchasing an additional 164,626 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 24.4% in the 2nd 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. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position 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 valued at $57,027,000 after buying an additional 105,764 shares during the last quarter. 70.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 target price on OceanFirst Financial and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Hovde Group lifted their price objective 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, OceanFirst Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.30.

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.