Columbia Sportswear (NASDAQ:COLM) Short Interest Down 17.5% in August

Columbia Sportswear (NASDAQ:COLM) saw a large drop in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,790,000 shares, a drop of 17.5% from the August 15th total of 3,380,000 shares. Approximately 8.7% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 450,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.2 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

COLM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Columbia Sportswear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $92.00 in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Columbia Sportswear in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Columbia Sportswear from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Columbia Sportswear has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Columbia Sportswear Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ COLM traded up $0.16 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $83.75. 92,126 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 466,562. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $80.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $80.31. Columbia Sportswear has a 52-week low of $66.01 and a 52-week high of $87.23. The company has a market capitalization of $4.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.92.

Columbia Sportswear (NASDAQ:COLM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The textile maker reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.34) by $0.14. Columbia Sportswear had a net margin of 6.72% and a return on equity of 13.01%. The company had revenue of $570.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $569.37 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.14 EPS. Columbia Sportswear’s revenue was down 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Columbia Sportswear will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Columbia Sportswear Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. Columbia Sportswear’s dividend payout ratio is 29.27%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Columbia Sportswear

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Columbia Sportswear by 116.6% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 418 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. TFO Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Columbia Sportswear by 11,725.0% during the fourth quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 473 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 469 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in Columbia Sportswear by 174.8% during the first quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 599 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 381 shares during the period. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Columbia Sportswear in the first quarter valued at $64,000. Finally, Dnca Finance bought a new stake in shares of Columbia Sportswear during the 2nd quarter valued at $68,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 47.76% of the company’s stock.

About Columbia Sportswear

Columbia Sportswear Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, markets, and distributes outdoor, active, and everyday lifestyle apparel, footwear, accessories, and equipment in the United States, Latin America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Canada. The company provides apparel, accessories, and equipment for hiking, trail running, snow, fishing, hunting, mountaineering, climbing, skiing and snowboarding, trail, and outdoor activities.