OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC)‘s stock had its “market perform” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in a note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $18.00 price target on the savings and loans company’s stock, down from their prior price target of $19.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 19.60% from the stock’s previous close.

OCFC has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $20.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Raymond James cut their price objective on OceanFirst Financial from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded OceanFirst Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.00.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

NASDAQ:OCFC opened at $15.05 on Friday. OceanFirst Financial has a one year low of $12.01 and a one year high of $19.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market cap of $883.59 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.80 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $15.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $15.76.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.02. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 6.17%. The company had revenue of $98.51 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $95.45 million. Research analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other OceanFirst Financial news, EVP Brian Schaeffer sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.49, for a total transaction of $54,215.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 41,868 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $648,535.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 5.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On OceanFirst Financial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in OCFC. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 143.3% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 380,529 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $5,506,000 after buying an additional 224,146 shares during the last quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 164.9% in the 4th quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 295,234 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $5,125,000 after purchasing an additional 183,796 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,394,141 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $19,660,000 after purchasing an additional 139,646 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 834,391 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $14,485,000 after purchasing an additional 139,047 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 3.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 105,764 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

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.