John G Ullman & Associates Inc. Takes Position in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC)

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 49,600 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock, valued at approximately $861,000. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. owned 0.08% of OceanFirst Financial at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in OCFC. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of OceanFirst Financial by 115,464.3% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,677,082 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $354,388,000 after acquiring an additional 16,662,651 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 11.0% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 8,449,389 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $131,979,000 after buying an additional 835,052 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 13.1% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,660,685 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $49,170,000 after buying an additional 308,240 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 143.3% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 380,529 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $5,506,000 after buying an additional 224,146 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in OceanFirst Financial by 6.5% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,603,798 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $66,598,000 after buying an additional 220,219 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

OceanFirst Financial Price Performance

Shares of OCFC stock opened at $15.18 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $903.67 million, a P/E ratio of 8.88 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. OceanFirst Financial Corp. has a 1-year low of $12.01 and a 1-year high of $19.58. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $15.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $15.37.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 18th. The savings and loans company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $99.69 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $97.26 million. OceanFirst Financial had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 6.19%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that OceanFirst Financial Corp. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

OceanFirst Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.27%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. OceanFirst Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. TheStreet raised shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of OceanFirst Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $20.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.50.

OceanFirst Financial 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.