Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) Short Interest Down 25.0% in September

Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 5,080,000 shares, a drop of 25.0% from the September 15th total of 6,770,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,970,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Columbia Banking System

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Columbia Banking System by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,327,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $432,041,000 after buying an additional 574,509 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted 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 valued at $123,153,000 after purchasing an additional 386,751 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted 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 valued at $93,851,000 after purchasing an additional 23,963 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,578,618 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $122,158,000 after purchasing an additional 637,212 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 21.4% in the 1st quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 4,468,643 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $86,468,000 after purchasing an additional 788,383 shares in the last quarter. 92.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Columbia Banking System Stock Performance

Shares of COLB opened at $26.90 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.90 and a beta of 0.64. The company’s fifty day moving average is $24.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.63. Columbia Banking System has a 1 year low of $17.08 and a 1 year high of $28.11.

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $472.15 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $476.01 million. Columbia Banking System had a net margin of 15.94% and a return on equity of 10.89%. The business’s revenue was down 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.81 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Columbia Banking System will post 2.55 EPS for the current year.

Columbia Banking System Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 9th. Investors of record on Friday, August 23rd were given a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 23rd. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.35%. Columbia Banking System’s dividend payout ratio is presently 63.72%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on COLB shares. Wedbush upgraded shares of Columbia Banking System from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $28.00 to $31.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Columbia Banking System from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Columbia Banking System from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Columbia Banking System from $21.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Columbia Banking System from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $25.81.

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.