Columbia Banking Earnings July 23: Operating EPS Beat at $0.76, Margin at 3.93% and Heading Above 4%

---

The Margin Test Passed. The Revenue Line Did Not.

UPDATE (August 7, 2026): Columbia reported on July 23 and split the way regional banks usually do. Operating earnings per share of $0.76 beat the roughly $0.73-0.74 expected below, while revenue of $677 million fell short of the $687-702 million modelled. GAAP net income was $208 million, or $0.73 per share.

On the margin, which this page said was the whole print, the answer was good and it comes with guidance. Net interest margin was 3.93%, including a three-basis-point headwind from one-time credit-related interest reversals; adjusted for that item the margin was essentially flat on the quarter. More importantly, management expects the margin to move "up to and beyond" 4% in the third quarter and to stay beyond 4% through 2026, driven by loan portfolio remixing and the repricing of lower-yielding assets.

That is the boring middle of banking working as advertised. No trading windfall, no investment-banking fee spike, just a spread widening because old low-yielding assets keep rolling into higher ones. The company returned over $300 million to shareholders in the quarter.

Not sourced: the credit-cost detail this page named alongside margin and deposit costs. A margin beat tells you what the bank earns on its assets and nothing about what it eventually loses on them, so treat this as half the test rather than all of it.

---

TL;DR

• Columbia Banking reports after Thursday's close, July 23, call at 5:00pm Eastern. The Street wants about $0.74 in EPS on roughly $702 million in revenue, right on the company's own $0.73 guide.
• This is a Pacific Northwest regional bank, which means the print is not about trading windfalls or investment-banking fees; it is about net interest margin, deposit costs, and credit.
• The megabanks already reported. Columbia is the read on the boring middle of banking, where the money is made on the spread, not the headlines.
• What to watch, and the trade.

The Board

Set to the company's own conservative guide. In regional banking, in-line is often the bull case.

The Three Numbers That Actually Move A Regional Bank

Ignore the EPS beat or miss for a second. Regional banks re-rate on three lines:

• Net interest margin. The spread between what Columbia earns on loans and pays on deposits. A stable-to-rising NIM is the entire bull case for the group here.
• Deposit costs. If depositors are still demanding higher rates to stay, the margin gets squeezed no matter how many loans the bank writes.
• Credit, specifically commercial real estate. Regional banks carry the CRE exposure the market worries about. Rising provisions for loan losses is the line that turns a fine quarter into a sell.

Hit all three and a slow bank is a buy; miss on credit and the dividend yield will not save the stock.

Why "In Line" Might Be The Bull Case

Columbia guided $0.73 and the Street is at $0.74: the bar is set to the company's own conservative math. In regional banking, boring and in-line is frequently the winning outcome: it means no credit surprise, no deposit flight, no margin shock. After a jittery couple of years for anything with "regional bank" in the name, simply confirming stability is worth a re-rate, the same low-bar dynamic that rewards dead expectations elsewhere.

The Options Angle

• Options on a slow regional bank are cheap, so this is a name to own with stock or calls, not one to sell premium on. The move is usually small until a credit number surprises, and then it is not small at all.
• The dividend is a real part of the return here. For income-oriented holders, a regional bank is a yield-and-stability play, and the earnings risk is mostly to the downside via credit, not the upside via growth.
• Watch the loan-loss provision, not the EPS headline. That single line prices the commercial-real-estate fear the whole group carries.

The One-Line Read

Columbia Banking is a spread-and-credit business, not a growth story, so the print that matters is a quiet one: stable margin, well-behaved deposits, and no ugly surprise in commercial real estate, because in regional banking the absence of bad news is the bull case.