Short Interest in Columbia Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLBK) Declines By 8.5%

Columbia Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLBK - Get Free Report) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,600,000 shares, a decrease of 8.5% from the February 29th total of 2,840,000 shares. Currently, 9.6% of the company's shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 71,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 36.2 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Piper Sandler reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $19.00 target price on shares of Columbia Financial in a report on Tuesday, March 26th.

Columbia Financial Stock Performance

CLBK traded up $0.19 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $17.21. 58,049 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 75,204. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The stock has a market cap of $1.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.17 and a beta of 0.20. Columbia Financial has a 12 month low of $14.11 and a 12 month high of $20.46. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.21.

Columbia Financial (NASDAQ:CLBK - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.02. Columbia Financial had a return on equity of 4.94% and a net margin of 8.54%. The company had revenue of $56.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $54.90 million. Analysts anticipate that Columbia Financial will post 0.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Columbia Financial

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Columbia Financial by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,630,379 shares of the company's stock worth $78,090,000 after purchasing an additional 10,519 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Columbia Financial by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,779,807 shares of the company's stock valued at $50,815,000 after buying an additional 60,316 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Columbia Financial by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,683,066 shares of the company's stock valued at $32,452,000 after buying an additional 56,155 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Columbia Financial by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,073,570 shares of the company's stock valued at $18,562,000 after buying an additional 9,448 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Columbia Financial by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 754,902 shares of the company's stock worth $13,800,000 after purchasing an additional 31,722 shares during the last quarter. 12.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Columbia Financial Company Profile

Columbia Financial, Inc, a bank holding company, provides various financial services to businesses and consumers in the United States. Its deposit products include checking, interest-earning checking products and municipal, savings and club deposits, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit.

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