Cwm LLC Raises Stake in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Cwm LLC increased its position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 105.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 21,639 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after buying an additional 11,114 shares during the period. Cwm LLC’s holdings in OceanFirst Financial were worth $402,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of OCFC. GSA Capital Partners LLP increased its position in OceanFirst Financial by 455.5% during the first quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 71,704 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $1,177,000 after purchasing an additional 58,795 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its holdings in OceanFirst Financial by 3.2% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,391,127 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $22,505,000 after acquiring an additional 42,966 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in OceanFirst Financial by 59,216.3% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 51,012 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $837,000 after acquiring an additional 50,926 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 3.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,475,107 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $57,027,000 after acquiring an additional 105,764 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 32.6% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 272,243 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $4,326,000 after purchasing an additional 66,918 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

OCFC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Hovde Group boosted their target price on OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Piper Sandler set a $17.00 price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $19.30.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

OceanFirst Financial stock opened at $19.10 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.12 billion, a PE ratio of 11.17 and a beta of 1.01. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a one year low of $12.01 and a one year high of $19.49. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $17.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.93 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.46 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 4th will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.19%. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

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.