Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.06 EPS

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) posted its earnings results on Thursday. The financial services provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.06, Zacks reports. Columbia Banking System had a return on equity of 10.13% and a net margin of 16.15%.

Columbia Banking System Stock Performance

Shares of COLB opened at $27.96 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.10 and a beta of 0.67. Columbia Banking System has a 1 year low of $17.08 and a 1 year high of $32.85. The company’s fifty day moving average is $28.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.70.

Columbia Banking System Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were given a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.15%. Columbia Banking System’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 62.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on COLB. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Columbia Banking System from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Columbia Banking System in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $32.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Columbia Banking System from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Columbia Banking System from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $33.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Columbia Banking System from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.23.

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.