Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Sells 107,851 Shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lessened its stake in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 3.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,183,638 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 107,851 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned 0.05% of OceanFirst Financial worth $50,586,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of OCFC. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in OceanFirst Financial in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the 1st quarter valued at $39,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at $62,000. EMC Capital Management bought a new position in shares of OceanFirst Financial in the 1st quarter valued at $150,000. Finally, CWM LLC raised its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 437.0% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 10,525 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $167,000 after buying an additional 8,565 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

Shares of OCFC opened at $18.32 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $17.30 and a 200 day moving average of $16.07. The company has a market capitalization of $1.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.71 and a beta of 1.01. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 12 month low of $12.01 and a 12 month high of $18.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $170.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.93 million. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 14.78% and a return on equity of 5.85%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.46 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.58 earnings per share for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Stockholders 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 4.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 5th. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Hovde Group increased their price objective 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. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, OceanFirst Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.90.

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.