Great Lakes Advisors LLC Acquires 853 Shares of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH)

Great Lakes Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 27,344 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 853 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Commerce Bancshares were worth $1,704,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,396,740 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $142,951,000 after buying an additional 163,782 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its position in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,468,854 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $91,524,000 after buying an additional 219,826 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,055,430 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $65,764,000 after buying an additional 43,928 shares in the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP grew its position in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 899,166 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $56,027,000 after buying an additional 7,280 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NFJ Investment Group LLC grew its position in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 17.7% during the 3rd quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC now owns 707,168 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $42,006,000 after buying an additional 106,316 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CBSH shares. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Commerce Bancshares from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded Commerce Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Commerce Bancshares from $66.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Commerce Bancshares from $72.00 to $66.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James cut Commerce Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Commerce Bancshares has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.17.

Insider Transactions at Commerce Bancshares

In related news, CFO Charles G. Kim sold 13,493 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.76, for a total transaction of $914,285.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 86,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,844,028.96. This trade represents a 13.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO John W. Kemper sold 26,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.28, for a total value of $1,752,105.76. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 211,929 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,258,583.12. This trade represents a 10.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 81,016 shares of company stock worth $5,422,811 over the last three months. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Commerce Bancshares Stock Performance

Commerce Bancshares stock opened at $60.71 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $64.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $64.49. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. has a one year low of $47.89 and a one year high of $72.75. The stock has a market cap of $8.13 billion, a PE ratio of 15.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.78.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.06. Commerce Bancshares had a return on equity of 16.31% and a net margin of 25.24%. The firm had revenue of $422.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $417.48 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.84 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Commerce Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Commerce Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.81%. This is a boost from Commerce Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Commerce Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.43%.

Commerce Bancshares Company Profile

Commerce Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Commerce Bank that provides retail, mortgage banking, corporate, investment, trust, and asset management products and services to individuals and businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Consumer, Commercial, and Wealth.