Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 211,787 Shares of Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) by 30.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 485,387 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 211,787 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.23% of Columbia Banking System worth $12,673,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Hawaiian Bank boosted its position in Columbia Banking System by 81.4% during the second quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 52,594 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,046,000 after purchasing an additional 23,597 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Columbia Banking System by 2.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,327,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $432,041,000 after purchasing an additional 574,509 shares during the last quarter. Interval Partners LP purchased a new position in Columbia Banking System in the first quarter worth $1,829,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its position in shares of Columbia Banking System by 16.5% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 154,293 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,305,000 after purchasing an additional 21,840 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its stake in shares of Columbia Banking System by 1.6% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 2,330,133 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $46,346,000 after acquiring an additional 36,867 shares in the last quarter. 92.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

COLB has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Stephens increased their target price on Columbia Banking System from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Columbia Banking System from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Columbia Banking System from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.12.

Columbia Banking System Stock Performance

Shares of Columbia Banking System stock opened at $30.88 on Friday. Columbia Banking System, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $17.08 and a fifty-two week high of $31.86. The company has a market cap of $6.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.37 and a beta of 0.62. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $23.44.

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $765.06 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $478.80 million. Columbia Banking System had a return on equity of 10.13% and a net margin of 16.15%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.79 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Columbia Banking System, Inc. will post 2.62 EPS for the current year.

Columbia Banking System 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.