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

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on COLB. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $22.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $20.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $20.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $21.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.04.

Columbia Banking System Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of COLB opened at $23.44 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $21.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.80. The company has a market capitalization of $4.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.06 and a beta of 0.65. Columbia Banking System has a 52-week low of $17.08 and a 52-week high of $28.11.

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $472.15 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $476.01 million. Columbia Banking System had a return on equity of 10.89% and a net margin of 15.94%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.81 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Columbia Banking System will post 2.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 2.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,327,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $432,041,000 after acquiring an additional 574,509 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 9.9% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,788,928 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $207,809,000 after acquiring an additional 700,643 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 6.7% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,191,704 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $123,153,000 after acquiring an additional 386,751 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 0.5% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,718,494 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $93,851,000 after acquiring an additional 23,963 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,578,618 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $122,158,000 after acquiring an additional 637,212 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.53% of the company’s stock.

Columbia Banking System Company Profile

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.