StockNews.com Upgrades First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) to “Hold”

First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Friday.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Wedbush decreased their price objective on shares of First Foundation from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Raymond James upgraded shares of First Foundation from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $9.50 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, January 5th.

First Foundation Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFWM opened at $6.08 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $7.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $7.49. First Foundation has a 52 week low of $3.69 and a 52 week high of $11.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $343.58 million, a P/E ratio of -1.66 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52.

First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $56.37 million for 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%. Analysts anticipate that First Foundation will post 0.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Ulrich E. Keller, Jr. sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.16, for a total transaction of $204,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 1,230,622 shares in the company, valued at $10,041,875.52. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 10.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of First Foundation

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in First Foundation in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $216,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in First Foundation by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 312,460 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,900,000 after purchasing an additional 14,980 shares during the period. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust acquired a new position in First Foundation in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,140,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in First Foundation in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,843,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in First Foundation by 49.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 26,926 shares of the bank’s stock worth $164,000 after purchasing an additional 8,888 shares during the period. 73.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.