OceanFirst Financial Corp. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.20 (NASDAQ:OCFC)

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share by the savings and loans company on Friday, May 17th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd.

OceanFirst Financial has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.6% annually over the last three years. OceanFirst Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 37.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect OceanFirst Financial to earn $2.09 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.3%.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

Shares of OCFC stock opened at $15.18 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $903.67 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.88 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 $15.34 and a 200 day moving average of $15.37. OceanFirst Financial has a 1 year low of $12.01 and a 1 year high of $19.58.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $99.69 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $97.26 million. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 6.19% and a net margin of 15.54%. As a group, research analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $20.00 target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com downgraded OceanFirst Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. TheStreet raised OceanFirst Financial from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.50.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On OceanFirst Financial

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Quarry LP grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 162.1% during the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,562 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 966 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 118.6% during the 2nd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,974 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,071 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 279.6% during the 1st quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,331 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 1,717 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 1,240.5% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,472 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 3,213 shares during the period. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 23.0% during the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 4,917 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $103,000 after acquiring an additional 919 shares during the period. 70.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.