OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold”

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Monday.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Raymond James reduced their price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. TheStreet raised shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $19.00 price objective (down from $22.00) on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Monday. Finally, Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a report on Friday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, OceanFirst Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.20.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

NASDAQ OCFC traded down $0.20 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $14.98. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 415,802 shares, compared to its average volume of 327,616. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. OceanFirst Financial has a 1-year low of $12.01 and a 1-year high of $19.58. The company’s 50-day moving average is $15.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $15.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $891.79 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.76 and a beta of 1.00.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.02. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 6.19% and a net margin of 15.54%. The business had revenue of $99.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $97.26 million. On average, equities analysts predict that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of OceanFirst Financial

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 11.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 139,646 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new position in OceanFirst Financial in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,015,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 695,344 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $10,062,000 after buying an additional 43,649 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 17.3% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 517,771 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $7,492,000 after buying an additional 76,317 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 143.3% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 380,529 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $5,506,000 after buying an additional 224,146 shares during the period. 70.98% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.