First Foundation Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.01 (NASDAQ:FFWM)

First Foundation Inc. (NASDAQ:FFWM) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 26th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be given a dividend of 0.01 per share by the bank on Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd.

First Foundation has a dividend payout ratio of 3.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect First Foundation to earn $1.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.04 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 3.9%.

First Foundation Trading Down 9.3 %

NASDAQ:FFWM opened at $6.08 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $343.58 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.26 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $7.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $7.48. First Foundation has a one year low of $3.69 and a one year high of $11.47.

First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $56.37 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.03 million. First Foundation had a positive return on equity of 1.11% and a negative net margin of 32.44%. Sell-side analysts forecast that First Foundation will post 0.29 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other First Foundation news, Chairman Ulrich E. Keller, Jr. sold 25,000 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chairman now owns 1,230,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,041,875.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 10.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wedbush dropped their price target on shares of First Foundation from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com upgraded First Foundation from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Raymond James raised First Foundation from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $9.50 to $12.00 in a research note on Friday, January 5th.

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.