Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) Upgraded to Overweight at Wells Fargo & Company

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) was upgraded by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report released on Monday,Finviz reports. The brokerage presently has a $35.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock, up from their previous price target of $33.00. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price points to a potential upside of 29.10% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on COLB. Raymond James raised their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Columbia Banking System from $30.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Columbia Banking System from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. StockNews.com upgraded Columbia Banking System from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 5th. Finally, Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Columbia Banking System from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.15.

Columbia Banking System Stock Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ COLB opened at $27.11 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $29.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.90. Columbia Banking System has a 52-week low of $17.08 and a 52-week high of $32.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.74 and a beta of 0.64.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $765.06 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $478.80 million. Columbia Banking System had a net margin of 16.15% and a return on equity of 10.13%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.79 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Columbia Banking System will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Columbia Banking System

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Columbia Banking System by 111.5% in the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,618 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 1,380 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Columbia Banking System by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 68,521 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,363,000 after acquiring an additional 10,776 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Columbia Banking System by 37.8% during the 2nd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 97,911 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,947,000 after buying an additional 26,877 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in Columbia Banking System by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 58,406 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,162,000 after purchasing an additional 1,085 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management grew its stake in shares of Columbia Banking System by 333.8% in the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 639,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,711,000 after acquiring an additional 491,742 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.53% of the company’s stock.

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.