OceanFirst Financial upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette

Keefe Bruyette upgraded OceanFirst Financial (OCFC) to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $22, up from $20. The firm expects earnings to inflect higher over the next couple years, driven by a normalization in credit, net interest margins, and expenses along with incremental contributions from the management’s strategic investments, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Shares have been pressured in recent years due to commercial real estate credit concerns and deteriorating returns related to severe net interest margin compression, but the outlook for a normalizing yield curve should reverse these trends, the firm added.