Insider Selling: OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Director Sells 1,500 Shares of Stock

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.03, for a total transaction of $30,045.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 177,417 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,553,662.51. This trade represents a 0.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

Shares of OCFC opened at $20.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.01. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $18.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.83. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $13.41 and a fifty-two week high of $21.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion, a PE ratio of 11.69 and a beta of 1.01.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $96.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $92.79 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 6.08% and a net margin of 15.28%. Equities analysts predict that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.91%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 4th. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is currently 45.71%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On OceanFirst Financial

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in OceanFirst Financial during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in OceanFirst Financial in the first quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. grew its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 82.3% in the third quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 3,055 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 1,379 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the second quarter worth $62,000. 70.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Hovde Group lifted their price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 target price on OceanFirst Financial and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.30.

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.