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

Foundry Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC - Free Report) by 1,985.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 303,794 shares of the savings and loans company's stock after purchasing an additional 289,230 shares during the quarter. Foundry Partners LLC owned about 0.52% of OceanFirst Financial worth $5,499,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 157,711 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its position in OceanFirst Financial by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 299,434 shares of the savings and loans company's stock valued at $5,566,000 after purchasing an additional 34,458 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 2.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 27,579 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 28.2% in the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 29,519 shares of the savings and loans company's stock worth $534,000 after buying an additional 6,496 shares during the last quarter. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its stake 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 worth $2,546,000 after buying an additional 30,373 shares in the last quarter. 70.98% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on OCFC shares. Hovde Group lowered their price target on OceanFirst Financial from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Raymond James decreased their target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Stephens reiterated an "equal weight" rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Five 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 company. According to MarketBeat, OceanFirst Financial has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $21.00.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

OceanFirst Financial stock traded down $1.07 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $14.65. 92,946 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 292,588. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 1 year low of $13.23 and a 1 year high of $21.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $857.86 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.86 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. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $17.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $18.29.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.38 earnings per share 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%. As a group, equities analysts expect 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 5.46%. OceanFirst Financial's payout ratio is 48.48%.

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.