Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) Price Target Lowered to $26.00 at Wells Fargo & Company

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) had its price objective decreased by Wells Fargo & Company from $35.00 to $26.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on COLB. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Columbia Banking System in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $32.00 target price on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Columbia Banking System from $34.00 to $33.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Columbia Banking System from $31.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Columbia Banking System from $33.00 to $27.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Stephens reduced their price objective on shares of Columbia Banking System from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.00.

Columbia Banking System Price Performance

COLB stock traded down $2.00 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $20.21. The stock had a trading volume of 612,247 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,787,057. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.31. Columbia Banking System has a fifty-two week low of $17.08 and a fifty-two week high of $32.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.25 billion, a PE ratio of 8.04 and a beta of 0.53.

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.06. Columbia Banking System had a net margin of 17.99% and a return on equity of 11.21%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Columbia Banking System will post 2.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Columbia Banking System Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. Columbia Banking System’s payout ratio is 56.69%.

Insider Activity at Columbia Banking System

In other Columbia Banking System news, VP Torran B. Nixon sold 4,481 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.99, for a total value of $116,461.19. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 104,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,725,545.31. The trade was a 4.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.59% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Columbia Banking System

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Columbia Banking System during the 1st quarter valued at $251,000. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Columbia Banking System during the first quarter valued at about $275,000. Quad Cities Investment Group LLC raised its stake in Columbia Banking System by 5.0% in the first quarter. Quad Cities Investment Group LLC now owns 33,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $838,000 after buying an additional 1,612 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 108,800.0% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 8,712 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $217,000 after buying an additional 8,704 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Columbia Banking System by 3,254.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 132,955 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,316,000 after acquiring an additional 128,992 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.