Foundry Partners LLC Grows Stock Holdings in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Foundry Partners LLC raised its holdings in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 1,985.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 303,794 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after acquiring an additional 289,230 shares during the period. Foundry Partners LLC owned 0.52% of OceanFirst Financial worth $5,499,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in OCFC. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $23,074,000 after acquiring an additional 157,711 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 11.2% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,208,800 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $21,879,000 after acquiring an additional 121,923 shares during the period. Trexquant Investment LP lifted its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 59.2% during the 4th quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 115,653 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $2,093,000 after acquiring an additional 43,019 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 13.0% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 299,434 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $5,566,000 after acquiring an additional 34,458 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Hovde Group dropped their price objective on OceanFirst Financial from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Raymond James reduced their target price on OceanFirst Financial from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.00.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Down 3.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ OCFC opened at $15.07 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $17.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.40. 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 $14.03 and a 12-month high of $21.87. The company has a market cap of $882.45 million, a P/E ratio of 9.13 and a beta of 1.03.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.75% and a net margin of 14.45%. Research analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.31%. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.48%.

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.