Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.12 EPS

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) released its earnings results on Thursday. The financial services provider reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.12, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $473.72 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $480.39 million. Columbia Banking System had a net margin of 12.71% and a return on equity of 10.27%. The business’s revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.46 EPS.

Columbia Banking System Stock Performance

Columbia Banking System stock traded up $0.37 on Friday, reaching $19.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,900,170 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,852,649. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $18.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $21.16. The company has a market cap of $4.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.87 and a beta of 0.71. Columbia Banking System has a twelve month low of $17.08 and a twelve month high of $28.11.

Columbia Banking System Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 11th. Investors of record on Friday, February 23rd were given a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.43%. Columbia Banking System’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 87.27%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Ron L. Farnsworth acquired 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $20.71 per share, with a total value of $51,775.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now directly owns 160,073 shares in the company, valued at $3,315,111.83. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CFO Ron L. Farnsworth acquired 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $20.71 per share, for a total transaction of $51,775.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 160,073 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,315,111.83. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Clint Stein acquired 9,500 shares of Columbia Banking System stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $20.96 per share, for a total transaction of $199,120.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 165,684 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,472,736.64. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders acquired 35,133 shares of company stock worth $719,737. 0.62% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on COLB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Columbia Banking System from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Columbia Banking System from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Columbia Banking System from $36.00 to $29.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Columbia Banking System from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Columbia Banking System presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.19.

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.