First Foundation Inc. (FFWM) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.01 on May 16th

First Foundation Inc. (NASDAQ:FFWM) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd.

First Foundation has a payout ratio of 3.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect First Foundation to earn $0.91 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 4.4%.

First Foundation Price Performance

FFWM stock opened at $5.48 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $309.67 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $7.24 and a 200-day moving average of $7.50. First Foundation has a 12-month low of $3.69 and a 12-month high of $11.47.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Ulrich E. Keller, Jr. sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $10,041,875.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 8.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on FFWM shares. StockNews.com upgraded First Foundation from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Raymond James raised shares of First Foundation from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $9.50 to $12.00 in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Finally, Wedbush cut their target price 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, April 26th.

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.