OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) Raised to “Hold” at StockNews.com

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

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Raymond James cut their price target on OceanFirst Financial from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. TheStreet upgraded OceanFirst Financial from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $19.00 price objective (down from $22.00) on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a report on Monday. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a report on Friday, April 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.20.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

Shares of OCFC stock opened at $15.44 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $919.14 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.03 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The business has a fifty day moving average of $15.33 and a 200 day moving average of $15.40. OceanFirst Financial has a 1 year low of $12.01 and a 1 year high of $19.58.

Institutional Trading of OceanFirst Financial

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 143.3% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 380,529 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $5,506,000 after purchasing an additional 224,146 shares in the last quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 164.9% during the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 295,234 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $5,125,000 after purchasing an additional 183,796 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 11.1% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,394,141 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $19,660,000 after purchasing an additional 139,646 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 834,391 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $14,485,000 after purchasing an additional 139,047 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the fourth quarter worth $1,701,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

About OceanFirst Financial

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.