Bank of America Corp DE Sells 258,946 Shares of Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB)

Bank of America Corp DE lowered its stake in Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) by 21.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 938,645 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 258,946 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE’s holdings in Columbia Banking System were worth $25,353,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Columbia Banking System during the 4th quarter worth about $65,249,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Columbia Banking System by 158.3% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,851,217 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $50,001,000 after acquiring an additional 1,134,544 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Columbia Banking System in the fourth quarter worth approximately $22,476,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,514,816 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $148,956,000 after acquiring an additional 512,542 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Columbia Banking System during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $10,227,000. Institutional investors own 92.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on COLB shares. Raymond James set a $27.00 price objective on shares of Columbia Banking System and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Columbia Banking System from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Columbia Banking System from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Columbia Banking System currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.85.

Insider Activity at Columbia Banking System

In related news, VP Torran B. Nixon sold 4,481 shares of Columbia Banking System stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.99, for a total transaction of $116,461.19. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 104,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,725,545.31. This trade represents a 4.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.68% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Columbia Banking System Stock Performance

Shares of Columbia Banking System stock opened at $25.02 on Monday. Columbia Banking System, Inc. has a 52-week low of $18.11 and a 52-week high of $32.85. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $23.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.85 and a beta of 0.59.

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.04. Columbia Banking System had a return on equity of 11.21% and a net margin of 17.99%. The business had revenue of $481.92 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $482.86 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.65 EPS. Columbia Banking System’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Columbia Banking System, Inc. will post 2.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Columbia Banking System Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.76%. Columbia Banking System’s payout ratio is presently 61.02%.

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.