Columbia Banking in Wash. Bests Wall Street Estimates

Columbia Banking System in Tacoma, Wash., tapped organic growth and its purchase of Intermountain Community Bancorp to post higher quarterly profit.

The $8.6 billion-asset company said in a press release Wednesday that its first-quarter profit rose 23% from a year earlier, to $24.4 million. Earnings per share of 42 cents beat the average estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg by 1 cent.

Net interest income rose 9%, to $80.4 million, though the net interest margin compressed by 46 basis points, to 4.39%.

Noninterest income jumped 63%, to $22.8 million, largely because of higher service charges and a $1.5 million gain from a change in the company's loss-sharing asset with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Noninterest expense rose 16%, to $66.7 million, reflecting higher compensation and benefit expenses tied to the Intermountain acquisition.

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