Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) Rating Increased to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Finviz reports. The brokerage presently has a $58.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 4.66% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Piper Sandler upped their price target 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 cut Commerce Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Raymond James lowered shares of Commerce Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Commerce Bancshares has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.83.

Commerce Bancshares Trading Down 3.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CBSH opened at $55.42 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.82, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.71. Commerce Bancshares has a 12-month low of $48.49 and a 12-month high of $72.75. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $63.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.39.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last announced 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 net margin of 25.24% and a return on equity of 16.31%. The business 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 earned $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Commerce Bancshares will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Charles G. Kim sold 13,493 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.76, for a total transaction of $914,285.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 86,246 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,844,028.96. The trade was a 13.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kevin G. Barth sold 24,870 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.06, for a total value of $1,642,912.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 45,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,006,456.66. This represents a 35.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 78,434 shares of company stock worth $5,248,272 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Commerce Bancshares

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 281,040 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $17,512,000 after buying an additional 9,362 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Commerce Bancshares in the third quarter valued at $566,000. Procyon Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Commerce Bancshares in the fourth quarter valued at $200,000. PFW Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Commerce Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth about $1,336,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,225,491 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $824,080,000 after purchasing an additional 642,401 shares during the last quarter. 70.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.