SG Americas Securities LLC Has $745,000 Position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 44.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 40,086 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after buying an additional 12,309 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC owned 0.07% of OceanFirst Financial worth $745,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 66,868 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 17,434 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $303,000 after purchasing an additional 1,016 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Wealth Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 25.1% during the 1st quarter. Eagle Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 68,172 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $1,078,000 after purchasing an additional 13,690 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 210,000 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $3,446,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $216,000. 70.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Up 4.3 %

OceanFirst Financial stock opened at $18.31 on Friday. 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 Corp. has a 12-month low of $12.01 and a 12-month high of $18.98. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $17.29 and its 200 day moving average is $16.24. The company has a market capitalization of $1.08 billion, a PE ratio of 10.71 and a beta of 1.01.

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

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 5th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 5th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.37%. OceanFirst Financial’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Hovde Group boosted their target price on shares of 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.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price 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.