Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) Shares Bought by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) by 27.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 13,806 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,990 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Commerce Bancshares were worth $860,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

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

Insider Transactions at Commerce Bancshares

In other news, SVP Patricia R. Kellerhals sold 1,719 shares of Commerce Bancshares stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.30, for a total transaction of $115,688.70. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 18,688 shares in the company, valued at $1,257,702.40. The trade was a 8.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Kevin G. Barth sold 24,870 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.06, for a total value of $1,642,912.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 45,511 shares in the company, valued at $3,006,456.66. This represents a 35.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 78,434 shares of company stock valued at $5,248,272 over the last three months. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CBSH. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $66.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Commerce Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Raymond James lowered shares of Commerce Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Commerce Bancshares from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Commerce Bancshares from $72.00 to $66.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.17.

Commerce Bancshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ CBSH opened at $62.27 on Friday. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. has a twelve month low of $48.49 and a twelve month high of $72.75. The stock has a market cap of $8.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.53, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.78. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $64.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $64.41.

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

Commerce Bancshares Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $0.275 dividend. This is an increase from Commerce Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.77%. Commerce Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.43%.

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.