Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.07 EPS

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The financial services provider reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.07, RTT News reports. Columbia Banking System had a net margin of 15.94% and a return on equity of 10.89%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.79 EPS.

Columbia Banking System Stock Performance

Columbia Banking System stock traded up $0.76 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $27.84. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 939,176 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,298,180. Columbia Banking System has a fifty-two week low of $17.08 and a fifty-two week high of $28.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.83 billion, a PE ratio of 11.85 and a beta of 0.64. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.11.

Columbia Banking System Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 23rd were issued a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.17%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 23rd. Columbia Banking System’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 61.80%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on COLB shares. Wedbush upgraded shares of Columbia Banking System from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $28.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Columbia Banking System from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 5th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Columbia Banking System from $21.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Columbia Banking System from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Stephens increased their price target on Columbia Banking System from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Columbia Banking System has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $25.81.

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.