Morgan Stanley Cuts Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) Price Target to $66.00

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) had its price target reduced by Morgan Stanley from $72.00 to $66.00 in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an underweight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

CBSH has been the subject of several other research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Commerce Bancshares from $66.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Commerce Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Commerce Bancshares from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Commerce Bancshares from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Raymond James cut Commerce Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Commerce Bancshares presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.17.

Commerce Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of CBSH stock opened at $60.71 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $8.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.14, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $64.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.49. Commerce Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $47.89 and a fifty-two week high of $72.75.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $422.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $417.48 million. Commerce Bancshares had a return on equity of 16.31% and a net margin of 25.24%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Commerce Bancshares will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Commerce Bancshares Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Commerce Bancshares news, VP David L. Orf sold 1,036 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.24, for a total value of $70,696.64. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 22,175 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,513,222. The trade was a 4.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO John W. Kemper sold 26,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 211,929 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,258,583.12. This represents a 10.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 81,016 shares of company stock valued at $5,422,811. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda purchased a new position in shares of Commerce Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. CoreFirst Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of Commerce Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Marshall Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Commerce Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new position in shares of Commerce Bancshares during the 3rd quarter valued at $47,000. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 84.0% during the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 791 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 361 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.26% of the company’s stock.

About Commerce Bancshares

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.