First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) PT Lowered to $7.00 at Wedbush

First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) had its target price reduced by Wedbush from $8.00 to $7.00 in a report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the bank’s stock. Wedbush also issued estimates for First Foundation’s Q2 2024 earnings at $0.04 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $0.30 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $0.17 EPS and Q4 2025 earnings at $0.30 EPS.

Separately, Raymond James raised shares of First Foundation from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $9.50 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, January 5th.

First Foundation Price Performance

Shares of FFWM stock opened at $6.08 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $343.58 million, a P/E ratio of 35.26 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. First Foundation has a 1-year low of $3.69 and a 1-year high of $11.47. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $7.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $7.48.

First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $56.37 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.03 million. First Foundation had a negative net margin of 32.44% and a positive return on equity of 1.11%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that First Foundation will post 0.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Foundation Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. First Foundation’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -1.09%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Ulrich E. Keller, Jr. sold 25,000 shares of First Foundation stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.16, for a total value of $204,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 1,230,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,041,875.52. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 10.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Azora Capital LP boosted its stake in First Foundation by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Azora Capital LP now owns 3,033,696 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $29,366,000 after purchasing an additional 90,840 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of First Foundation by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,812,024 shares of the bank’s stock worth $17,097,000 after buying an additional 20,799 shares in the last quarter. BHZ Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of First Foundation by 33.7% during the 4th quarter. BHZ Capital Management LP now owns 742,355 shares of the bank’s stock worth $7,186,000 after buying an additional 187,182 shares in the last quarter. rhino investment partners Inc bought a new stake in shares of First Foundation during the 4th quarter worth about $4,093,000. Finally, Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Foundation during the 3rd quarter worth about $2,305,000. 73.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About First Foundation

First Foundation Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides banking services, investment advisory, wealth management, and trust services to individuals, businesses, and other organizations in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Banking and Wealth Management. It offers a range of deposit products, including personal and business checking accounts, savings accounts, interest-bearing demand deposit accounts, money market accounts, and time certificate of deposits; and loan products consisting of multifamily and single family residential real estate loans, commercial real estate loans, commercial term loans, and line of credits, as well as consumer loans, such as personal installment loans and line of credits, and home equity line of credits.