EMC Capital Management Grows Stock Holdings in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

EMC Capital Management grew its position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 6,001.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,152 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,002 shares during the period. EMC Capital Management’s holdings in OceanFirst Financial were worth $166,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of OCFC. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its position in OceanFirst Financial by 28.2% in the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 29,519 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $534,000 after acquiring an additional 6,496 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $226,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 1,036.4% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,466 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 1,337 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,241,191 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $23,074,000 after buying an additional 157,711 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in OceanFirst Financial by 11.6% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 79,571 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $1,466,000 after buying an additional 8,253 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on OCFC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Hovde Group decreased their price objective on OceanFirst Financial from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $17.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at OceanFirst Financial

In other OceanFirst Financial news, Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.03, for a total value of $30,045.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 177,417 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,553,662.51. The trade was a 0.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 5.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

OceanFirst Financial Trading Down 1.3 %

OCFC opened at $18.03 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.33. The company has a market cap of $1.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.93 and a beta of 1.06. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a one year low of $14.03 and a one year high of $21.87. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 14.45% and a return on equity of 5.75%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.44%. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.49%.

OceanFirst Financial 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.