Columbia Banking System (COLB) Competitors

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) and Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, profitability, earnings, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Do analysts prefer COLB or RF?

Columbia Banking System currently has a consensus target price of $29.71, suggesting a potential upside of 24.20%. Regions Financial has a consensus target price of $25.80, suggesting a potential upside of 15.20%. Given Columbia Banking System's higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Columbia Banking System is more favorable than Regions Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Columbia Banking System	0 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.29
Regions Financial	1 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.52

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer COLB or RF?

Regions Financial received 671 more outperform votes than Columbia Banking System when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.59% of users gave Regions Financial an outperform vote while only 41.89% of users gave Columbia Banking System an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Columbia Banking System	Outperform Votes 271 41.89%	Underperform Votes 376 58.11%
Regions Financial	Outperform Votes 942 62.59%	Underperform Votes 563 37.41%

Is COLB or RF more profitable?

Regions Financial has a net margin of 20.20% compared to Columbia Banking System's net margin of 17.99%. Regions Financial's return on equity of 12.83% beat Columbia Banking System's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Columbia Banking System	17.99%	11.21%	1.10%
Regions Financial	20.20%	12.83%	1.32%

Is COLB or RF a better dividend stock?

Columbia Banking System pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.0%. Regions Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Columbia Banking System pays out 61.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Regions Financial pays out 48.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Columbia Banking System has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years and Regions Financial has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years.

Which has better valuation & earnings, COLB or RF?

Regions Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Columbia Banking System. Columbia Banking System is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Regions Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Columbia Banking System	$1.95B	2.58	$533.67M	$2.36	10.14
Regions Financial	$7.12B	2.83	$1.89B	$2.08	10.77

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in COLB or RF?

92.5% of Columbia Banking System shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.4% of Regions Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Columbia Banking System shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Regions Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer COLB or RF?

In the previous week, Regions Financial had 8 more articles in the media than Columbia Banking System. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Regions Financial and 4 mentions for Columbia Banking System. Regions Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.21 beat Columbia Banking System's score of 1.04 indicating that Regions Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Columbia Banking System	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Regions Financial	7 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk and volatility, COLB or RF?

Columbia Banking System has a beta of 0.63, meaning that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Regions Financial has a beta of 0.96, meaning that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Regions Financial beats Columbia Banking System on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.