First Financial Northwest (NASDAQ:FFNW) Lifted to Hold at StockNews.com

First Financial Northwest (NASDAQ:FFNW) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

Separately, Piper Sandler cut shares of First Financial Northwest from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.50 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, July 26th.

First Financial Northwest Stock Performance

Shares of First Financial Northwest stock traded up $0.38 during trading on Friday, hitting $23.00. 70,658 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 40,485. The stock has a market capitalization of $211.00 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.70 and a beta of 0.53. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.44. First Financial Northwest has a 52-week low of $10.09 and a 52-week high of $23.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.10.

First Financial Northwest (NASDAQ:FFNW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The bank reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.04 by $0.13. First Financial Northwest had a return on equity of 1.98% and a net margin of 3.89%. The business had revenue of $19.99 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.60 million. On average, research analysts forecast that First Financial Northwest will post 0.23 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of First Financial Northwest

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in First Financial Northwest by 9.8% in the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 11,986 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $253,000 after acquiring an additional 1,069 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of First Financial Northwest by 6.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 368,446 shares of the bank’s stock worth $7,575,000 after purchasing an additional 21,447 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of First Financial Northwest by 45.2% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 63,223 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,336,000 after purchasing an additional 19,670 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers acquired a new position in shares of First Financial Northwest during the 2nd quarter worth about $188,000. Finally, Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in First Financial Northwest in the 2nd quarter valued at about $411,000. 55.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About First Financial Northwest

First Financial Northwest, Inc operates as the bank holding company for First Financial Northwest Bank that provides commercial banking services in Washington. The company offers a range of deposit products, including noninterest-bearing accounts, interest-bearing demand accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit.