Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) Lifted to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Thursday morning.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on COLB. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Columbia Banking System from $28.00 to $21.50 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Raymond James cut shares of Columbia Banking System from a strong-buy rating to an outperform rating and set a $25.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Columbia Banking System from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Wedbush restated a neutral rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of Columbia Banking System in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $25.00 to $22.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $22.19.

Columbia Banking System Price Performance

Shares of Columbia Banking System stock opened at $20.42 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.20. Columbia Banking System has a fifty-two week low of $17.08 and a fifty-two week high of $28.11. The firm has a market cap of $4.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.76 and a beta of 0.69.

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.12. Columbia Banking System had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 16.52%. The company had revenue of $473.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $480.39 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.46 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Columbia Banking System will post 2.44 EPS for the current year.

Columbia Banking System Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 24th will be given a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.05%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 23rd. Columbia Banking System’s dividend payout ratio is presently 61.80%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Columbia Banking System by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,327,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $432,041,000 after buying an additional 574,509 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Columbia Banking System by 9.9% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,788,928 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $207,809,000 after purchasing an additional 700,643 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of Columbia Banking System by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,079,502 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $143,714,000 after purchasing an additional 26,010 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Columbia Banking System by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,578,618 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $122,158,000 after purchasing an additional 637,212 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Columbia Banking System by 21.4% in the 1st quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 4,468,643 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $86,468,000 after buying an additional 788,383 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.53% of the company’s stock.

About Columbia Banking System

Columbia Banking System, Inc operates as the holding company of Umpqua Bank that provides banking, private banking, mortgage, and other financial services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business, non-interest bearing checking, interest-bearing checking and savings, money market, and certificate of deposit accounts; and insured cash sweep and other investment sweep solutions.