First Financial Northwest, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFNW) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of First Financial Northwest, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFNW) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the three ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $23.00.

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on FFNW shares. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of First Financial Northwest in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. They set a “sell” rating on the stock. DA Davidson downgraded shares of First Financial Northwest from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $16.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Friday, January 12th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on First Financial Northwest from $14.00 to $23.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on First Financial Northwest from $15.00 to $23.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th.

First Financial Northwest Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of FFNW stock opened at $20.40 on Wednesday. First Financial Northwest has a 1 year low of $9.70 and a 1 year high of $22.17. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $187.07 million, a P/E ratio of 30.00 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77.

First Financial Northwest (NASDAQ:FFNW) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by ($0.01). First Financial Northwest had a return on equity of 3.95% and a net margin of 7.79%. The company had revenue of $9.91 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.26 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that First Financial Northwest will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

First Financial Northwest Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.55%. First Financial Northwest’s payout ratio is 76.47%.

Institutional Trading of First Financial Northwest

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FFNW. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in First Financial Northwest by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 10,000 shares of the bank’s stock worth $148,000 after acquiring an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in First Financial Northwest by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 22,937 shares of the bank’s stock worth $261,000 after acquiring an additional 1,216 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its position in First Financial Northwest by 213.0% during the 2nd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,800 shares of the bank’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 1,225 shares during the last quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC boosted its position in First Financial Northwest by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC now owns 94,407 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,201,000 after acquiring an additional 1,900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bridgeway Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of First Financial Northwest by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 90,069 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,214,000 after buying an additional 2,112 shares during the last quarter. 55.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

First Financial Northwest Company Profile

First Financial Northwest, Inc operates as the bank holding company for First Financial Northwest Bank that provides commercial banking services in Washington. The company offers a range of deposit products, including noninterest-bearing accounts, interest-bearing demand accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit.