Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) Shares Sold by Hennessy Advisors Inc.

Hennessy Advisors Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) by 21.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 55,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 15,000 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Columbia Banking System were worth $1,064,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of COLB. First Pacific Financial bought a new position in shares of Columbia Banking System during the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Columbia Banking System during the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in shares of Columbia Banking System during the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. Cerity Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Columbia Banking System during the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Columbia Banking System by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 3,932 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $105,000 after buying an additional 595 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

COLB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Columbia Banking System from $25.00 to $22.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Columbia Banking System from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $27.00 target price on shares of Columbia Banking System in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of Columbia Banking System from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Columbia Banking System from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.04.

Columbia Banking System Stock Performance

Shares of COLB opened at $19.89 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.16 billion, a PE ratio of 8.54 and a beta of 0.67. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $19.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $20.50. Columbia Banking System, Inc. has a twelve month low of $17.08 and a twelve month high of $28.11.

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $473.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $480.39 million. Columbia Banking System had a net margin of 16.52% and a return on equity of 11.58%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.46 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Columbia Banking System, Inc. will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Columbia Banking System Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 24th were given a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 23rd. Columbia Banking System’s payout ratio is presently 61.80%.

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.