HighTower Advisors LLC Purchases 1,330 Shares of Columbia Banking System, Inc. $COLB

HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) by 8.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 17,141 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,330 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Columbia Banking System were worth $427,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 4.8% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,667,271 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $191,222,000 after purchasing an additional 351,375 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 221.3% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,947,950 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $148,342,000 after purchasing an additional 4,096,733 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 4.9% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,578,297 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $64,303,000 after purchasing an additional 121,333 shares in the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP raised its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 6.5% in the first quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,150,641 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $53,637,000 after purchasing an additional 130,646 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. raised its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 2,109,817 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $56,986,000 after purchasing an additional 428,776 shares in the last quarter. 92.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

COLB has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Columbia Banking System from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Columbia Banking System from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 10th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Columbia Banking System to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Columbia Banking System in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. They set a “hold” rating and a $27.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $26.00 price target (up previously from $22.00) on shares of Columbia Banking System in a report on Monday, July 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $28.86.

Columbia Banking System Trading Down 1.2%

Columbia Banking System stock opened at $26.77 on Monday. Columbia Banking System, Inc. has a 12 month low of $19.61 and a 12 month high of $32.85. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.25. The firm has a market cap of $5.63 billion, a PE ratio of 10.62 and a beta of 0.66.

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.10. Columbia Banking System had a return on equity of 11.31% and a net margin of 17.98%.The firm had revenue of $511.55 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $492.00 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.67 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Columbia Banking System, Inc. will post 2.71 EPS for the current year.

Columbia Banking System Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be given a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.4%. Columbia Banking System’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.14%.

Columbia Banking System Company 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.