OceanFirst (OCFC) To Acquire Two River Bancorp & Country Bank

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:OCFC) entered two separate definitive merger agreements, which are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2020. Under the first agreement, New Jersey-based Two River Bancorp will merge with OceanFirst. Under the second agreement, New York-based Country Bank Holding Company, Inc., a State chartered commercial bank, will be merged with OceanFirst.

On a combined basis, the transactions are expected to result in earnings per share (EPS) accretion of nearly 8% in 2021. However, at closing, the transactions will be dilutive to tangible book value per share by 5%.

The Two River Bancorp deal is valued at $182.8 million while the Country Bank deal has total value of $102.2 million.

Per the terms of the Two River Bancorp deal, shareholders of Two River Bancorp will receive nearly 0.6663 shares of OceanFirst common stock and $5.375 in cash for each outstanding share of Two River Bancorp common stock, on completion.

Once the Country Bank deal is completed, its shareholders will receive 2,000 shares of OceanFirst common stock for each outstanding share of Country Bank common stock.

The chairman and CEO of OceanFirst, Christopher D. Maher, stated, “We are excited for both Two River and CYHC shareholders to join the OceanFirst family, as both institutions share a similar operating philosophy and this provides us an opportunity to further enhance our presence in New Jersey and build upon our lending initiatives in metropolitan New York. We believe the addition of these two high-performing franchises will further leverage the significant investments we have made in people, processes and technology and positively impact our earnings potential.”

Notably, as of Jun 30, 2019, Two River Bancorp had $1.2 billion in assets, $953.1 million in loans and $972.6 million in deposits, whereas Country Bank’s assets stood at $783.4 million, loans were $592.4 million and deposits totaled $649.7 million.

Based on the results as of Jun 30, along with the purchase accounting impact, the combined company is projected to have pro forma assets of $9.9 billion, loans of $7.5 billion and deposits of $7.7 billion.

The agreements have been approved by the board of directors of OceanFirst and the respective companies.

Now, the closing of the agreements is subject to approval by the respective shareholders of the companies, receipt of all required regulatory approvals and fulfillment of other customary conditions.

Since the announcement of the deals, share price of OceanFirst has declined nearly 2.4%.

Over the past six months, the company’s shares have lost 12.8% compared with a 2.7% decline recorded by the industry.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

A few better-ranked stocks from the finance space are T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) , Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE:AMP) and Eaton (NYSE:ETN) Vance Corporation (NYSE:EV) .

Over the past 60 days, T. Rowe Price has witnessed an upward earnings estimate revision of 4.3% for the current year. So far this year, its share price has risen 15.5%. The stock currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Over the past 60 days, Ameriprise Financial’s earnings estimates have been revised 1% upward for the current year. Additionally, its share price has risen 20.2% so far this year. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Eaton Vance also has a Zacks Rank of 2. Over the past 60 days, its earnings estimates for fiscal 2019 have been marginally revised upward. Shares of the company have rallied 13.8% year to date.

More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!

It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.

Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020.

Click here for the 6 trades >>