Columbia Financial (NASDAQ:CLBK) Raised to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Columbia Financial (NASDAQ:CLBK) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Capital One Financial set a $14.00 target price on shares of Columbia Financial in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods initiated coverage on Columbia Financial in a research report on Monday, August 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $14.50 price target on the stock. New Street Research set a $14.00 price target on Columbia Financial in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Brean Capital upgraded Columbia Financial from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Columbia Financial from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $15.10.

Columbia Financial Price Performance

Shares of Columbia Financial stock opened at $10.85 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The company has a 50-day moving average of $11.31 and a 200 day moving average of $15.73. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.34 and a beta of 0.26. Columbia Financial has a 1 year low of $6.56 and a 1 year high of $12.00.

Columbia Financial (NASDAQ:CLBK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Columbia Financial had a net margin of 11.19% and a return on equity of 5.25%. The company had revenue of $73.75 million during the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Columbia Financial will post 0.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CLBK. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Columbia Financial in the second quarter worth approximately $51,902,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Columbia Financial in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,338,000. PEAK6 LLC purchased a new stake in Columbia Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,693,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in Columbia Financial by 12.0% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 676,066 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,838,000 after buying an additional 72,334 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in Columbia Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,544,000. Institutional investors own 12.72% of the company’s stock.

About Columbia Financial

Columbia Financial, Inc is the holding company for Columbia Bank, a community-focused financial institution headquartered in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. Columbia Bank provides banking and financial services to consumers, businesses and organizations through a network of branches and digital banking channels.

The bank’s products and services include checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, residential mortgages, home equity loans, consumer loans and commercial real estate and business lending.