Columbia Banking heads for worst day since 2008 after big earnings miss

Columbia Banking System

25/01/2024 15:33

** Shares of Columbia Banking System  COLB.O  fall 20% to
$20.35 as several brokerages downgrade the lender's stock
following Q4 results
    ** Stock on pace for its biggest pct. drop since July 2008 
    ** The U.S. West Coast-based lender reports Q4 operating EPS
of $0.44, missing analysts' avg est of $0.79, as per LSEG data,
due to higher deposit costs and increased provisions     
    ** Brokerage KBW cuts to "market perform" from "outperform";
cuts PT to $25 from $30, says the prospects for a buyback appear
to be a couple of quarters out
    ** DA Davidson cuts to "neutral" from "buy"; 
    ** Says "the reality of little to no loan growth puts a
disappointing cloud over the long-touted belief that the merger
with Umpqua would drive added scale and growth potential"
    ** COLB announced the acquisition of larger rival Umpqua
Holdings in an all-stock deal worth $5.1 bln in Oct. 2021
    ** Raymond James downgrades to "outperform" from "strong
buy"
    ** COLB has a short interest of 1.73% as of Jan 12, as per
LSEG data
    ** COLB down 22% YTD after 11.4% drop in 2023

 (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru)
 ((sruthi.shankar@thomsonreuters.com;))