MQS Management LLC Buys Shares of 16,008 OceanFirst Financial Corp. $OCFC

MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 16,008 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock, valued at approximately $282,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in OCFC. Quarry LP raised its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 132.3% in the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 7,325 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 4,172 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $175,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 25.8% in the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 13,132 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $223,000 after purchasing an additional 2,696 shares in the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $224,000. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $233,000. 70.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on OCFC shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. DA Davidson started coverage on OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Monday. They set a “buy” rating and a $19.00 price target on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised OceanFirst Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $20.00 to $22.00 in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $23.00 price target (up from $21.00) on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Monday. Finally, Zacks Research lowered OceanFirst Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.60.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

Shares of OCFC opened at $18.59 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $1.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.41 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $18.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.00. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 12 month low of $14.29 and a 12 month high of $21.87.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 14th. The savings and loans company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.00% and a net margin of 11.77%.The firm had revenue of $93.08 million during the quarter. On average, research analysts forecast that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.3%. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.02%.

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.