AQR Capital Management LLC Raises Holdings in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 24.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 807,280 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after acquiring an additional 158,590 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned 1.37% of OceanFirst Financial worth $12,828,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of OCFC. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 24,809 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $431,000 after purchasing an additional 3,475 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 17,434 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $303,000 after buying an additional 1,016 shares in the last quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC acquired a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the fourth quarter worth about $548,000. Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 122.1% during the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 83,650 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $1,452,000 after acquiring an additional 45,980 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,046,061 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $18,160,000 after acquiring an additional 66,868 shares during the period. 70.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

OCFC opened at $17.88 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.11. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 52-week low of $12.01 and a 52-week high of $18.98. The company has a market cap of $1.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.46 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.03). OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 5.85% and a net margin of 14.78%. The firm had revenue of $170.41 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.93 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.46 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Investors of record on Monday, August 5th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 5th. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Hovde Group upped their price target on OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, OceanFirst Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.90.

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.