Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Sells 54,567 Shares of First Foundation Inc. (NASDAQ:FFWM)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. lowered its position in First Foundation Inc. (NASDAQ:FFWM) by 48.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 57,703 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 54,567 shares during the quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in First Foundation were worth $559,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. raised its position in shares of First Foundation by 23.8% in the 1st quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 3,883 shares of the bank’s stock worth $94,000 after acquiring an additional 747 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of First Foundation in the 1st quarter worth approximately $33,000. Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in shares of First Foundation by 77.6% in the 2nd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 6,388 shares of the bank’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 2,792 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in shares of First Foundation in the 1st quarter worth approximately $219,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of First Foundation by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 9,388 shares of the bank’s stock worth $229,000 after acquiring an additional 711 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFWM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James raised First Foundation from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $9.50 to $12.00 in a research report on Friday, January 5th. Wedbush raised their price objective on First Foundation from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other First Foundation news, Chairman Ulrich E. Keller, Jr. sold 25,000 shares of First Foundation stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.16, for a total value of $204,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 1,230,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,041,875.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 10.20% of the company’s stock.

First Foundation Price Performance

FFWM stock opened at $6.45 on Wednesday. First Foundation Inc. has a twelve month low of $3.69 and a twelve month high of $11.47. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The firm has a market cap of $364.23 million, a PE ratio of 20.16 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50 day moving average of $7.56 and a 200 day moving average of $7.45.

First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $56.37 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.03 million. First Foundation had a positive return on equity of 1.80% and a negative net margin of 31.95%. On average, research analysts forecast that First Foundation Inc. will post 0.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Foundation Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 5th were issued a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 2nd. First Foundation’s payout ratio is -1.14%.

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.