Columbia Financial (NASDAQ:CLBK) Raised to “Buy” at Brean Capital

Columbia Financial (NASDAQ:CLBK) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Brean Capital from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Monday.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded Columbia Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on Columbia Financial in a research note on Monday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $14.50 target price for the company. Piper Sandler raised Columbia Financial from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $19.00 to $14.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Columbia Financial from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $15.83.

Columbia Financial Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:CLBK traded up $0.14 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $11.93. The company had a trading volume of 2,223,337 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,119,433. Columbia Financial has a 1-year low of $6.21 and a 1-year high of $12.00. The stock has a market cap of $3.21 billion, a PE ratio of 35.52 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $17.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.99.

Columbia Financial (NASDAQ:CLBK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $73.75 million for the quarter. Columbia Financial had a return on equity of 5.29% and a net margin of 11.19%. Research analysts forecast that Columbia Financial will post 0.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CLBK. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Columbia Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at about $51,902,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Columbia Financial by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,054,755 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,842,000 after acquiring an additional 10,376 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Columbia Financial by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 926,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,396,000 after acquiring an additional 3,090 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Columbia Financial by 12.0% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 676,066 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,838,000 after acquiring an additional 72,334 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning raised its position in Columbia Financial by 52.0% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 184,837 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,774,000 after purchasing an additional 63,265 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 12.72% of the company’s stock.

About Columbia Financial

Columbia Financial, Inc is the bank holding company for Columbia Bank, a commercial bank headquartered in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. Through its principal subsidiary, Columbia Bank, the company offers a comprehensive suite of retail and commercial banking products and services. These offerings include deposit accounts, consumer and mortgage lending, commercial real estate financing, and business banking solutions tailored to small- and medium-sized enterprises.

On the consumer side, Columbia Bank provides checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, home equity lines of credit, and residential mortgage loans.