OceanFirst Financial Corp. (OCFC) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 3rd

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share by the savings and loans company on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd.

OceanFirst Financial has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.6% per year over the last three years. OceanFirst Financial has a payout ratio of 38.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect OceanFirst Financial to earn $1.60 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 50.0%.

OceanFirst Financial Stock Performance

Shares of OCFC stock opened at $18.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The business has a fifty day moving average of $19.12 and a 200 day moving average of $18.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.75 and a beta of 1.06. OceanFirst Financial has a 1 year low of $14.03 and a 1 year high of $21.87.

OceanFirst Financial (NASDAQ:OCFC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. OceanFirst Financial had a return on equity of 6.08% and a net margin of 15.28%. As a group, research analysts expect that OceanFirst Financial will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on OCFC shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Raymond James upgraded OceanFirst Financial from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of OceanFirst Financial in a research report on Friday. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $17.00 target price on shares of OceanFirst Financial and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.75.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Joseph M. Jr. Murphy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.03, for a total transaction of $30,045.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 177,417 shares in the company, valued at $3,553,662.51. This represents a 0.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 5.00% of the company’s stock.

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.