# Columbia Banking System (COLB.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/COLB

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:27:37.310Z. Financial observations: FY2015–FY2025.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: pass; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $28.63 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

Estimated value: low $31.54 per share, central $39.42 per share, high $52.56 per share. Buy at or below the central value $39.42 per share. Valuation as of 2026-10-16T07:27:37.310Z; scenarios are not confidence intervals.

Expected annual return: 11.5% at the stated quote. About 11.5% a year at today's price (required return 10.0%). required return 10.0% a year (10% floor; US 10-year bond 5.1% + 4 points).

## Checklist

### understandable: pass

- Financial history: 10 years

- Profitable years in the last ten: 10

- Required profitable years: 9

- Return on common equity variation (informational): 0.29×

Chart: Net income; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: $105M

- FY2017: $113M

- FY2018: $173M

- FY2019: $194M

- FY2020: $154M

- FY2021: $203M

- FY2022: $250M

- FY2023: $349M

- FY2024: $534M

- FY2025: $549M

### moat: fail

- Tangible common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity

- median return on common equity below threshold

- Bank / P&C ROTE, median of available years: 10.2%

- Required median return: 12.0%

- Return uses tangible common equity: Yes

- Bank ROTE, second-lowest year: 9.7%

- Cost / income, median: 59.8%

- Years with reported combined ratio: 0

Chart: Return on tangible common equity; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 3.0%

- FY2017: 10.0%

- FY2018: 14.1%

- FY2019: 14.3%

- FY2020: 9.9%

- FY2021: 11.7%

- FY2022: 10.1%

- FY2023: 10.4%

- FY2024: 14.8%

- FY2025: 9.7%

### economics: pass

- Tangible common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity

- Book value per share + reinvested dividends, annualized return: 11.3%

- Book return interval: 10 years

- Starting book value per share: $15.58

- Ending book value per share: $23.61

Chart: Annual book + dividend return; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 4.8%

- FY2017: -66.5%

- FY2018: 16.0%

- FY2019: 19.5%

- FY2020: 21.5%

- FY2021: 107.4%

- FY2022: 55.1%

- FY2023: -2.8%

- FY2024: 8.7%

- FY2025: 45.2%

### management: pass

- Tangible common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 0.8%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 1.6%

- Share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: 0.8%

- Five-year share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: 1.6%

- Flagged crisis recapitalisations: 0

- Book created / earnings retained after dividends and buybacks: 2.58×

- Book value created per share: $8.04

- Earnings retained per share after dividends and buybacks: $3.11

Chart: Shares (first year = 100); fiscal year observations.

- FY2015: 100

- FY2016: 100

- FY2017: 100

- FY2018: 100

- FY2019: 100

- FY2020: 100

- FY2021: 59

- FY2022: 59

- FY2023: 89

- FY2024: 95

- FY2025: 108

### accounting: fail

- credit provisions persistently exceed same-year peers

- Financial accounting warning count: 1

- Deposits, annualized growth: 22.0%

- Known restatement years: 0

- Years loan growth exceeded twice deposit growth: 2

- Years credit losses exceeded peer median: 5

## Holders

- [Matthew McLennan](https://gigainvestors.com/FE): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

- [Richard Pzena](https://gigainvestors.com/PIM): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

Down 22% since Feb 2022 · "COLB Loan Remix May Reset Growth as Transactional Loans Run Off" (finance.yahoo.com, Mar 2026) · net income +2.8%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:58:32.828Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

The price assumes profits grow 4.5% a year forever

- 2025-07-24: Columbia Banking Q2 2025 slides: Operating EPS rises as Pacific Premier acquisition nears ([investing.com](https://www.investing.com/news/company-news/columbia-banking-q2-2025-slides-operating-eps-rises-as-pacific-premier-acquisition-nears-93CH-4152088))

- 2025-08-13: Surging Earnings Estimates Signal Upside for Columbia Banking (COLB) Stock ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/surging-earnings-estimates-signal-upside-162001849.html))

- 2026-01-23: COLB Q4 Deep Dive: Acquisition and Cost Savings Drive Columbia Banking System's Growth ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/colb-q4-deep-dive-acquisition-150054663.html))

- 2026-07-23: Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) Reports Sales Below Analyst Estimates In Q2 CY2026 Earnings ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/columbia-banking-system-nasdaq-colb-201516785.html))

### Net income · FY2025

net income +2.8%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/887343/000088734326000088/colb-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-26.

- FY2016: $105M 

- FY2017: $113M 

- FY2018: $173M 

- FY2019: $194M 

- FY2020: $154M 

- FY2021: $203M 

- FY2022: $250M 

- FY2023: $349M 

- FY2024: $534M 

- FY2025: $549M 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in regional banking; annual sales are USD 2.3 billion.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/887343/000088734326000088/colb-20251231.htm#000088734326000088 (filed 2026-02-26); FY2025: revenue 2301000000.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); COLB.US: Columbia Banking System, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Columbia 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, insured cash sweep and other investment sweep solutions, and certificates of deposit. It also provides commercial lending products, such as commercial lines of credit and term loans, accounts receivable and inventory financing, international trade finance, commercial property loans, multifamily loans, equipment loans, commercial equipment leases, real estate construction loans, permanent financing, small business administration program financing, and capital markets services. In addition, the company offers wealth management, comprising financial planning, investment, trust, insurance, and private banking solutions, as well as treasury management, which includes digital and mobile banking solutions, ACH, wires, positive pay, remote deposit capture, integrated payments, integrated receivables, lockbox, cash vault, real-time payments, commercial card, foreign exchange, trade and supply chain finance, international banking related products, and merchant services. Further, it provides residential real estate loans and consumer loans. The company serves corporate, institutional, small business, and individual customers in the United States. Columbia Banking System, Inc. was founded in 1953 and is based in Tacoma, Washington.

### Why customers stay

It earns 10.2% on shareholders’ money, excluding intangible assets.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); 10-year return on tangible equity observations [[2016,0.029840773892097314],[2017,0.1002107634111876],[2018,0.1414896838452536],[2019,0.14311948078330003],[2020,0.09919030553088652],[2021,0.11717447858743572],[2022,0.10107871217144004],[2023,0.10380352164600858],[2024,0.14812760055478502],[2025,0.09723698193411265]]; median 0.10244111690872432. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 10 of 10 years; bought back USD 109 million of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); Dividend observations: [[2016,141074000],[2017,145398000],[2018,173914000],[2019,185101000],[2020,184978000],[2021,183734000],[2022,182273000],[2023,270261000],[2024,300221000],[2025,335000000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/887343/000088734326000088/colb-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-26); FY2025: cash repurchases 109000000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 0.8% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); COLB.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 0.751 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price assumes profits grow 4.5% a year forever.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); Price 28.63; FX 1; original perpetual distributable cash 1.5768366050607485; discount 0.1; growth 0.04492362539082262. Same book-value model and 4× ceiling; no ten-year operating fade applies. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $33.02 per share

- 2016-11: $39.82 per share

- 2016-12: $44.68 per share

- 2017-01: $39.76 per share

- 2017-02: $39.89 per share

- 2017-03: $38.99 per share

- 2017-04: $39.51 per share

- 2017-05: $36.71 per share

- 2017-06: $39.85 per share

- 2017-07: $39.84 per share

- 2017-08: $37.17 per share

- 2017-09: $42.11 per share

- 2017-10: $43.51 per share

- 2017-11: $46.10 per share

- 2017-12: $43.44 per share

- 2018-01: $43.08 per share

- 2018-02: $41.78 per share

- 2018-03: $41.95 per share

- 2018-04: $40.21 per share

- 2018-05: $42.52 per share

- 2018-06: $40.90 per share

- 2018-07: $40.93 per share

- 2018-08: $42.25 per share

- 2018-09: $38.77 per share

- 2018-10: $37.09 per share

- 2018-11: $40.68 per share

- 2018-12: $36.29 per share

- 2019-01: $36.75 per share

- 2019-02: $37.88 per share

- 2019-03: $32.69 per share

- 2019-04: $37.54 per share

- 2019-05: $33.35 per share

- 2019-06: $36.18 per share

- 2019-07: $37.71 per share

- 2019-08: $34.51 per share

- 2019-09: $36.90 per share

- 2019-10: $39.30 per share

- 2019-11: $39.08 per share

- 2019-12: $40.69 per share

- 2020-01: $38.70 per share

- 2020-02: $33.20 per share

- 2020-03: $26.80 per share

- 2020-04: $26.99 per share

- 2020-05: $24.36 per share

- 2020-06: $28.35 per share

- 2020-07: $28.93 per share

- 2020-08: $27.91 per share

- 2020-09: $23.85 per share

- 2020-10: $28.41 per share

- 2020-11: $31.61 per share

- 2020-12: $35.90 per share

- 2021-01: $38.52 per share

- 2021-02: $44.29 per share

- 2021-03: $43.09 per share

- 2021-04: $43.53 per share

- 2021-05: $43.16 per share

- 2021-06: $38.56 per share

- 2021-07: $34.94 per share

- 2021-08: $36.36 per share

- 2021-09: $37.99 per share

- 2021-10: $34.13 per share

- 2021-11: $32.86 per share

- 2021-12: $32.72 per share

- 2022-01: $34.77 per share

- 2022-02: $36.63 per share

- 2022-03: $32.27 per share

- 2022-04: $28.08 per share

- 2022-05: $30.15 per share

- 2022-06: $28.65 per share

- 2022-07: $30.17 per share

- 2022-08: $29.95 per share

- 2022-09: $28.89 per share

- 2022-10: $33.47 per share

- 2022-11: $34.06 per share

- 2022-12: $30.13 per share

- 2023-01: $30.91 per share

- 2023-02: $29.73 per share

- 2023-03: $21.42 per share

- 2023-04: $21.36 per share

- 2023-05: $20.03 per share

- 2023-06: $20.28 per share

- 2023-07: $22.35 per share

- 2023-08: $20.48 per share

- 2023-09: $20.30 per share

- 2023-10: $19.67 per share

- 2023-11: $22.43 per share

- 2023-12: $26.68 per share

- 2024-01: $20.16 per share

- 2024-02: $18.10 per share

- 2024-03: $19.35 per share

- 2024-04: $18.81 per share

- 2024-05: $19.28 per share

- 2024-06: $19.89 per share

- 2024-07: $26.16 per share

- 2024-08: $25.18 per share

- 2024-09: $26.11 per share

- 2024-10: $28.51 per share

- 2024-11: $31.01 per share

- 2024-12: $27.01 per share

- 2025-01: $27.90 per share

- 2025-02: $26.73 per share

- 2025-03: $24.94 per share

- 2025-04: $22.42 per share

- 2025-05: $23.38 per share

- 2025-06: $23.38 per share

- 2025-07: $23.80 per share

- 2025-08: $26.77 per share

- 2025-09: $25.74 per share

- 2025-10: $26.80 per share

- 2025-11: $27.72 per share

- 2025-12: $27.95 per share

- 2026-01: $29.44 per share

- 2026-02: $28.45 per share

- 2026-03: $27.43 per share

- 2026-04: $29.60 per share

- 2026-05: $29.64 per share

- 2026-06: $32.05 per share

- 2026-07: $31.27 per share

- 2026-08: $29.64 per share

- 2026-09: $28.60 per share

- 2026-10: $28.63 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

- FY2016: low $8.80 per share, central $10.03 per share, high $11.66 per share

- FY2017: low $2.80 per share, central $3.19 per share, high $3.72 per share

- FY2018: low $4.21 per share, central $4.87 per share, high $5.79 per share

- FY2019: low $8.63 per share, central $10.59 per share, high $13.70 per share

- FY2020: low $10.06 per share, central $12.53 per share, high $16.61 per share

- FY2021: low $24.43 per share, central $30.54 per share, high $40.72 per share

- FY2022: low $30.52 per share, central $38.15 per share, high $50.87 per share

- FY2023: low $19.90 per share, central $23.72 per share, high $29.37 per share

- FY2024: low $28.26 per share, central $35.32 per share, high $47.10 per share

- FY2025: low $38.75 per share, central $48.43 per share, high $64.58 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/887343/000088734326000088/colb-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-26.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.