Hsbc Holdings PLC Increases Stock Holdings in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) by 53.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 70,824 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,750 shares during the quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC owned approximately 0.12% of OceanFirst Financial worth $1,117,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Denali Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in OceanFirst Financial during the 2nd quarter worth about $172,000. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in OceanFirst Financial by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 137,196 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $2,180,000 after purchasing an additional 658 shares in the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in OceanFirst Financial during the 2nd quarter worth about $62,000. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in OceanFirst Financial by 105.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 69,981 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $1,112,000 after purchasing an additional 35,994 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in OceanFirst Financial by 20.8% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 956,320 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $15,196,000 after purchasing an additional 164,626 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Hovde Group lifted their price objective on OceanFirst Financial from $19.50 to $21.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.90.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:OCFC opened at $18.32 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $17.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.07. 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 Corp. has a 12-month low of $12.01 and a 12-month high of $18.98. The firm has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.71 and a beta of 1.01.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last released 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 in the prior year, the firm earned $0.46 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.58 EPS for the current year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

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

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.