West Coast Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SCZC) and First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) Head to Head Comparison

First Foundation (NASDAQ:FFWM) and West Coast Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SCZC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends and valuation.

Risk and Volatility

First Foundation has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, West Coast Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.49, meaning that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

First Foundation pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. West Coast Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. First Foundation pays out -2.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. West Coast Community Bancorp pays out 23.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for First Foundation and West Coast Community Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First Foundation	0	1	3	0	2.75
West Coast Community Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00

First Foundation presently has a consensus target price of $6.58, suggesting a potential upside of 5.59%. Given First Foundation’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe First Foundation is more favorable than West Coast Community Bancorp.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

73.1% of First Foundation shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 9.7% of West Coast Community Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.5% of First Foundation shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares First Foundation and West Coast Community Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First Foundation	-13.94%	-0.73%	-0.05%
West Coast Community Bancorp	23.91%	N/A	N/A

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares First Foundation and West Coast Community Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
First Foundation	$196.20 million	2.63	-$92.41 million	($1.96)	-3.18
West Coast Community Bancorp	$123.69 million	3.76	$29.58 million	$3.39	12.95

West Coast Community Bancorp has lower revenue, but higher earnings than First Foundation. First Foundation is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than West Coast Community Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

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. The company also provides various specialized services comprising trust services, online and mobile banking, remote deposit capture services, merchant credit card services, ATM cards, Visa debit cards, and business sweep accounts, as well as insurance brokerage services and equipment financing solutions. In addition, it offers investment management and financial planning services; financial, investment, and economic advisory and related services; and treasury management services, such as bill pay, check/payee/ACH positive pay, wire origination, internal and external transfers, account reconciliation reporting, mobile deposit, lockbox, cash vault services and merchant processing. Further, the company provides support services, including the processing and transmission of financial and economic data for charitable organizations. It operates through a network of branch offices and loan production offices. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

About West Coast Community Bancorp

West Coast Community Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Santa Cruz County Bank that provides a range of commercial and personal banking services to residents and businesses in the United States. It offers checking, savings, money market, certificate of deposits, and health savings accounts; and individual retirement account and retirement plans. The company also provides lending products, including real estate commercial property, construction, asset-based, lines of credit, SBA loans, 504 loan program, business and industry, farm services agency, agricultural, and wine industry lending. In addition, it provides debit and credit cards, merchant services, online and mobile banking, remote deposit services, wire and ACH manager, treasury management, payment, and cash management services. West Coast Community Bancorp was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California.