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

First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) had its target price decreased by Wedbush from $8.00 to $7.00 in a research report report published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has 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 upgraded First Foundation from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $9.50 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, January 5th.

First Foundation Price Performance

NASDAQ:FFWM opened at $6.08 on Friday. First Foundation has a 52 week low of $3.69 and a 52 week 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 stock has a market capitalization of $343.58 million, a PE ratio of 35.26 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $7.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $7.48.

First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.03. First Foundation had a positive return on equity of 1.11% and a negative net margin of 32.44%. The firm had revenue of $56.37 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $62.03 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that First Foundation will post 0.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Foundation Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Ulrich E. Keller, Jr. sold 25,000 shares of First Foundation stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.16, for a total value of $204,000.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 1,230,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,041,875.52. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 10.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of First Foundation during the 1st quarter worth approximately $171,000. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of First Foundation during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of First Foundation during the 4th quarter worth approximately $126,000. BHZ Capital Management LP boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 187,182 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Azora Capital LP boosted its holdings in shares of First Foundation by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Azora Capital LP now owns 3,033,696 shares of the bank’s stock worth $29,366,000 after purchasing an additional 90,840 shares during the last quarter. 73.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

First Foundation Company Profile

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.