Natixis Advisors LLC Buys 17,944 Shares of Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB)

Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) by 18.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 115,855 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,944 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Columbia Banking System were worth $3,025,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Columbia Banking System by 2.6% in 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 period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,191,704 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $123,153,000 after acquiring an additional 386,751 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,718,494 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $93,851,000 after acquiring an additional 23,963 shares during the period. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC lifted its position in Columbia Banking System by 21.4% during the 1st quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 4,468,643 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $86,468,000 after acquiring an additional 788,383 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 812.2% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,182,655 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $63,295,000 after acquiring an additional 2,833,744 shares during the period. 92.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Columbia Banking System Stock Performance

Shares of Columbia Banking System stock opened at $31.64 on Friday. Columbia Banking System, Inc. has a twelve month low of $17.08 and a twelve month high of $31.86. The firm has a market cap of $6.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.70 and a beta of 0.62. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $23.81.

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.07. Columbia Banking System had a return on equity of 10.13% and a net margin of 16.15%. The company had revenue of $765.06 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $478.80 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.79 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Columbia Banking System, Inc. will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Columbia Banking System Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.55%. Columbia Banking System’s payout ratio is presently 62.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on COLB shares. Wedbush lifted their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Raymond James lifted their price target on Columbia Banking System from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Columbia Banking System from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Columbia Banking System from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, 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. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.12.

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.