BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in First Foundation Inc. (NASDAQ:FFWM). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Financial company by 5.59% to 3.65 million shares with purchase of 0.19 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 6.48% valued currently at $55.06 million. In addition, FIAM LLC raised its holdings by 0.37 million to 2.62 million shares. And The Vanguard Group, Inc. has lifted its position by 0.70% or 17811.0 shares – to 2.57 million shares.
With over 2.82 million First Foundation Inc. (FFWM) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $9.15 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $25.81 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -53.95% and its price on 03/14/23 gained nearly 18.06%. Currently, there are 56.37M common shares owned by the public and among those 50.60M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 5 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for FFWM have a consensus price objective of $17.60. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $19.00 and a low of $16.00. The average price target is 48.01% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 42.81% over that period. But an upside of 51.84% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $18.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 29 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 27 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 68,749 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 2 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 25,345 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in First Foundation Inc. are Fidelity Small Cap Value Fund, Delaware Small Cap Core Fund, and Vanguard Total Stock Market Index. Fidelity Small Cap Value Fund owns 2.28 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $34.37 million. Delaware Small Cap Core Fund bought 52637.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 1.52 million shares valued at over $22.89 million and representing 2.69% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index now owns shares totaling to 2.65% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of First Foundation Inc. (NASDAQ: FFWM) opened at $9.80, up $2.05 from a prior closing price of $7.75. However, the script later moved the day high at 10.01, up 18.06%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -34.46% and -36.72% over the past three months. FFWM shares are trading -36.15% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -64.30% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $7.53 and touched a high of $26.44 over the same period. FFWM has an average intraday trading volume of 464.43K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -36.25%, -38.76%, and -47.69% respectively.
Institutional ownership of First Foundation Inc. (NASDAQ: FFWM) shares accounts for 69.80% of the company’s 56.37M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 31.48%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 38.35% and 12.99% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $567.21M and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.98. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 4.68, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.96. The company has a PEG of 0.67 and the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.50. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 14.56% over the week and 5.05% over the month.
Analysts forecast that First Foundation Inc. (FFWM) will achieve an EPS of $0.18 for the current quarter, $0.19 for the next quarter and $1.61 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.08 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.24. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.55 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -18.80%, and 86.89% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 7.00% over the next five years, compared to 15.90% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 5 brokerage firm advisors rate First Foundation Inc. (FFWM) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.00. Specifically, 2 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 2 of the 5 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the FFWM, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Piper Sandler stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on February 03, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $17.50-$16. DA Davidson coverage for the First Foundation Inc. (FFWM) stock in a research note released on October 26, 2022 offered a Neutral rating with a price target of $18. B. Riley Securities was of a view on July 11, 2022 that the stock is Neutral, while Stephens gave the stock Overweight rating on February 02, 2022, issuing a price target of $32. Piper Sandler on their part issued Overweight rating on April 24, 2020.
