Blue Trust Inc. Buys 571 Shares of Columbia Banking System, Inc. $COLB

Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) by 26.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,718 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 571 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Columbia Banking System were worth $64,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in COLB. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Columbia Banking System by 221.3% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,947,950 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $148,342,000 after buying an additional 4,096,733 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Columbia Banking System by 18.4% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,527,612 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $162,791,000 after buying an additional 1,012,796 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Columbia Banking System by 528.4% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 742,107 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $18,508,000 after buying an additional 624,011 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management boosted its holdings in shares of Columbia Banking System by 81.5% in the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,331,143 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $33,199,000 after buying an additional 597,710 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Columbia Banking System in the first quarter worth approximately $12,588,000. 92.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Columbia Banking System from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Columbia Banking System from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Columbia Banking System from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $31.00 in a report on Friday, October 10th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Columbia Banking System in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Columbia Banking System from $30.00 to $29.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Columbia Banking System has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.33.

Columbia Banking System Price Performance

Columbia Banking System stock opened at $24.32 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.65 and a beta of 0.60. Columbia Banking System, Inc. has a 1 year low of $19.61 and a 1 year high of $32.85. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $26.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $24.38.

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 4th. The financial services provider reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $348.47 million for the quarter. Columbia Banking System had a net margin of 17.98% and a return on equity of 11.31%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Columbia Banking System, Inc. will post 2.71 EPS for the current year.

Columbia Banking System Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th were given a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 29th. Columbia Banking System’s payout ratio is currently 57.14%.

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.