Legal & General Group Plc Sells 1,598 Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 64,394 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 1,598 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.11% of OceanFirst Financial worth $1,166,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in OCFC. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,675,259 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $30,322,000 after buying an additional 67,010 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 14.6% in the third 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 period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 11.2% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,208,800 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $21,879,000 after purchasing an additional 121,923 shares in the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 763,840 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $13,826,000 after purchasing an additional 30,399 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 733,190 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $13,400,000 after purchasing an additional 20,249 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

OCFC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Raymond James reduced their price objective on OceanFirst Financial from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Hovde Group reduced their price target 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, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, OceanFirst Financial currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.00.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Up 0.3 %

OCFC stock opened at $16.55 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $966.21 million, a P/E ratio of 10.03 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.00. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 1-year low of $14.03 and a 1-year high of $21.87. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $16.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $18.11.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35. The business had revenue of $97.91 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $95.66 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.75% and a net margin of 14.45%. Equities analysts forecast 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 will be paid on Friday, May 16th. Investors of record on Monday, May 5th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 5th. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.29%.

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.