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

Foundry Partners LLC increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 8.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,564 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after buying an additional 1,145 shares during the period. Foundry Partners LLC’s holdings in OceanFirst Financial were worth $271,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 3.1% in the first 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. Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,391,127 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $22,505,000 after buying an additional 42,966 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 20.8% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 956,320 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $15,196,000 after acquiring an additional 164,626 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 24.4% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 807,280 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $12,828,000 after acquiring an additional 158,590 shares during the period. Finally, Royce & Associates LP increased its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 43.7% in the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 733,441 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $13,635,000 after acquiring an additional 223,203 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Up 3.7 %

OCFC stock opened at $20.88 on Friday. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 1-year low of $13.41 and a 1-year high of $21.34. The stock has a market cap of $1.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.54 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company’s 50 day moving average is $18.70 and its 200 day moving average is $17.03.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.01. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 15.28% and a return on equity of 6.08%. The firm had revenue of $96.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $92.79 million. Sell-side analysts predict that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.83%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is currently 45.71%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

OCFC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 target price on OceanFirst Financial and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Hovde Group upped their price target on OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.75.

Insider Activity at OceanFirst Financial

In other news, Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,553,662.51. This represents a 0.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 5.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.