Columbia Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLBK) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Columbia Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLBK) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,540,000 shares, a decline of 8.3% from the March 31st total of 2,770,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 72,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 35.0 days. Currently, 9.4% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CLBK. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Columbia Financial by 0.7% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 143,786 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,259,000 after buying an additional 958 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Columbia Financial by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,683,066 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,452,000 after acquiring an additional 56,155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in Columbia Financial during the 4th quarter valued at about $234,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 12.72% of the company’s stock.

Columbia Financial Trading Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ:CLBK traded down $0.08 on Monday, reaching $16.79. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 59,628 shares, compared to its average volume of 71,381. Columbia Financial has a 12-month low of $14.11 and a 12-month high of $20.46. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $16.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.32. The firm has a market cap of $1.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.97 and a beta of 0.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

Columbia Financial (NASDAQ:CLBK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $56.59 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $54.90 million. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Columbia Financial will post 0.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $19.00 target price on shares of Columbia Financial in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th.

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.