Columbia Banking System, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.36 (NASDAQ:COLB)

Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 15th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of 0.36 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, December 16th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.54%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th.

Columbia Banking System has increased its dividend payment by an average of 7.2% annually over the last three years. Columbia Banking System has a payout ratio of 53.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Columbia Banking System to earn $2.72 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 52.9%.

Columbia Banking System Stock Performance

Columbia Banking System stock opened at $31.72 on Wednesday. Columbia Banking System has a one year low of $17.08 and a one year high of $32.85. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $27.93 and a 200 day moving average of $23.92. The stock has a market cap of $6.65 billion, a PE ratio of 13.73 and a beta of 0.62.

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.07. Columbia Banking System had a net margin of 16.15% and a return on equity of 10.13%. The firm had revenue of $765.06 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $478.80 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.79 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Columbia Banking System will post 2.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

COLB has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wedbush increased their price target on shares of Columbia Banking System from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Columbia Banking System from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Columbia Banking System from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 5th. Truist Financial upped their price target on Columbia Banking System from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.12.

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.