Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) Cut to “Equal Weight” at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report released on Monday morning, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has $64.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock, down from their prior target price of $66.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on CBSH. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Commerce Bancshares from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Commerce Bancshares from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $59.71.

Commerce Bancshares Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Commerce Bancshares stock opened at $57.04 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.35 billion, a PE ratio of 15.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.87 and a beta of 0.75. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $61.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $57.43. Commerce Bancshares has a 12 month low of $40.91 and a 12 month high of $65.86.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $414.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $406.88 million. Commerce Bancshares had a return on equity of 16.50% and a net margin of 23.62%. The company’s revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.97 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Commerce Bancshares will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Commerce Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 5th were issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 5th. Commerce Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.12%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Commerce Bancshares news, Director Jonathan M. Kemper sold 19,626 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total value of $1,249,391.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 997,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,476,149.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO John W. Kemper sold 5,156 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.22, for a total value of $336,274.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 198,298 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,932,995.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jonathan M. Kemper sold 19,626 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total value of $1,249,391.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 997,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,476,149.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 49,612 shares of company stock worth $3,184,609. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Commerce Bancshares by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,372,518 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $660,816,000 after buying an additional 558,017 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Commerce Bancshares by 19.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,069,924 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $115,453,000 after buying an additional 342,793 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in Commerce Bancshares by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,509,796 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $195,776,000 after buying an additional 240,938 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in Commerce Bancshares by 168.3% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 342,084 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $19,081,000 after buying an additional 214,582 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 15.4% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,260,999 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $70,339,000 after purchasing an additional 168,550 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.26% of the company’s stock.

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.