First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) Given New $7.00 Price Target at Wedbush

First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM - Get Free Report) had its price target decreased by Wedbush from $8.00 to $7.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "neutral" rating on the bank's stock. Wedbush's price objective suggests a potential upside of 15.13% from the stock's current price.

Separately, Raymond James upgraded shares of First Foundation from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $9.50 to $12.00 in a research report on Friday, January 5th.

First Foundation Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFWM traded down $0.62 on Friday, reaching $6.08. 608,647 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 596,264. The firm has a market cap of $343.58 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.73 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $7.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $7.48. First Foundation has a fifty-two week low of $3.69 and a fifty-two week high of $11.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05.

First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $56.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.03 million. First Foundation had a negative net margin of 31.95% and a positive return on equity of 1.80%. Equities research analysts predict that First Foundation will post 0.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at First Foundation

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 shares were sold at an average price of $8.16, for a total value of $204,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 1,230,622 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,041,875.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 10.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of First Foundation

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of First Foundation during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management acquired a new position in First Foundation during the third quarter worth about $120,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in First Foundation in the 4th quarter valued at about $126,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in First Foundation by 77.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 21,710 shares of the bank's stock valued at $132,000 after purchasing an additional 9,463 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Trust Co boosted its holdings in First Foundation by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 13,946 shares of the bank's stock valued at $135,000 after purchasing an additional 1,089 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.10% of the company's stock.

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.