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

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) was upgraded by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The firm presently has a $58.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock, down from their prior price target of $66.00. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 4.35% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on CBSH. Raymond James cut shares of Commerce Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com downgraded Commerce Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.83.

Commerce Bancshares Price Performance

NASDAQ CBSH opened at $55.58 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $63.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $64.23. Commerce Bancshares has a 1 year low of $48.49 and a 1 year high of $72.75. The company has a market cap of $7.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.86, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.71.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 analyst estimates of $417.48 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Commerce Bancshares will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Commerce Bancshares news, CFO Charles G. Kim sold 13,493 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.76, for a total transaction of $914,285.68. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 86,246 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,844,028.96. This represents a 13.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP David L. Orf sold 1,036 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.24, for a total value of $70,696.64. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,175 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,513,222. The trade was a 4.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 78,434 shares of company stock worth $5,248,272 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Commerce Bancshares

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. CoreFirst Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in Commerce Bancshares in the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. Marshall Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Commerce Bancshares in the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its stake in 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 worth $49,000 after buying an additional 361 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 46.9% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 839 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. 70.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.