Columbia Banking price target raised to $36 from $34 at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler raised the firm’s price target on Columbia Banking (COLB) to $36 from $34 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. After the first wave of Q1 earnings across the firm’s Western bank coverage, operating EPS exceeded expectations by 5% with the median EPS up 23% year-over-year. Piper notes stronger than expected PPNR has been a common theme driven by better net interest margin expansion and tighter expense controls, partially offset by softer loan growth in a seasonally difficult quarter.