Franklin Resources Inc. Has $1.70 Million Stock Holdings in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 18.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 94,007 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,436 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned about 0.16% of OceanFirst Financial worth $1,702,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 14.6% in 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 purchasing an additional 157,711 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 13.0% during 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 in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 27.5% in the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 140,665 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $2,546,000 after purchasing an additional 30,373 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,421,373 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $26,428,000 after acquiring an additional 27,579 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its stake 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 buying an additional 6,496 shares during the last quarter. 70.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

OCFC has been the subject of several analyst reports. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Raymond James decreased their price objective on OceanFirst Financial from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Hovde Group cut their price target on OceanFirst Financial from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.00.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

OceanFirst Financial stock opened at $15.29 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $17.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.23. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 12-month low of $14.03 and a 12-month high of $21.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $895.34 million, a PE ratio of 9.27 and a beta of 0.94.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last issued 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 return on equity of 5.75% and a net margin of 14.45%. As a group, analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.23%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is presently 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.