First Foundation’s (FFWM) “Neutral” Rating Reiterated at Piper Sandler

First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reiterated by research analysts at Piper Sandler in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $6.00 price target on the bank’s stock. Piper Sandler’s target price suggests a potential upside of 20.48% from the stock’s previous close.

FFWM has been the topic of a number of other research reports. DA Davidson upgraded First Foundation from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $8.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Wedbush decreased their target price on shares of First Foundation from $6.00 to $5.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Stephens downgraded shares of First Foundation from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of First Foundation from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of First Foundation from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $8.00.

First Foundation Price Performance

First Foundation stock traded down $1.59 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $4.98. The company had a trading volume of 2,668,002 shares, compared to its average volume of 580,574. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $5.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.47. The company has a market cap of $281.42 million, a P/E ratio of -1.37 and a beta of 1.34. First Foundation has a fifty-two week low of $3.69 and a fifty-two week high of $11.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84.

First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The bank reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.01. First Foundation had a positive return on equity of 1.11% and a negative net margin of 32.44%. The firm had revenue of $51.07 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.93 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that First Foundation will post 0.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFWM. Azora Capital LP increased its position in First Foundation by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Azora Capital LP now owns 3,033,696 shares of the bank’s stock worth $29,366,000 after buying an additional 90,840 shares during the last quarter. BHZ Capital Management LP grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 187,182 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 20,799 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in First Foundation by 149.3% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 41,900 shares of the bank’s stock worth $255,000 after acquiring an additional 25,095 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in First Foundation by 116.3% in the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 21,070 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $204,000 after acquiring an additional 11,328 shares during the period. 73.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.