Lecap Asset Management Ltd. Acquires New Stake in Columbia Banking System, Inc. $COLB

Key Points

• Lecap Asset Management Ltd. has acquired a new stake in Columbia Banking System, purchasing 18,074 shares valued at approximately $423,000.
• Columbia Banking System reported an earnings per share of $0.76, exceeding estimates of $0.66, with a revenue of $511.55 million for the last quarter, reflecting an 8.2% increase compared to the previous year.
• The company recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.36 per share, providing an annualized yield of 5.5%.

Lecap Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 18,074 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $423,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Columbia Banking System by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,742,629 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $317,802,000 after purchasing an additional 116,795 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Columbia Banking System by 4.8% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,667,271 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $191,222,000 after purchasing an additional 351,375 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Columbia Banking System by 18.4% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,527,612 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $162,791,000 after purchasing an additional 1,012,796 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Columbia Banking System by 221.3% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,947,950 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $148,342,000 after purchasing an additional 4,096,733 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its stake in Columbia Banking System by 13.3% during the 1st quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 2,703,761 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $67,432,000 after purchasing an additional 316,988 shares during the last quarter. 92.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

COLB has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Columbia Banking System from $26.50 to $24.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. TD Cowen initiated coverage on Columbia Banking System in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $28.00 price target on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded Columbia Banking System from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $26.00 price target (up from $22.00) on shares of Columbia Banking System in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Columbia Banking System in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $29.27.

Columbia Banking System Stock Performance

NASDAQ COLB opened at $26.41 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.55 billion, a PE ratio of 10.48 and a beta of 0.60. The business's fifty day moving average is $25.75 and its 200 day moving average is $24.35. Columbia Banking System, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.61 and a fifty-two week high of $32.85.

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $511.55 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $492.00 million. Columbia Banking System had a return on equity of 11.31% and a net margin of 17.98%.Columbia Banking System's quarterly revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.67 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Columbia Banking System, Inc. will post 2.71 EPS for the current year.

Columbia Banking System Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th were given a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.5%. Columbia Banking System's payout ratio is 57.14%.

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.

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