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

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

CBSH has been the subject of several other research reports. StockNews.com cut Commerce Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of Commerce Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.83.

Commerce Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CBSH opened at $55.42 on Monday. Commerce Bancshares has a 1-year low of $48.49 and a 1-year high of $72.75. The stock has a market cap of $7.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.71. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $63.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.39.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP David L. Orf sold 1,036 shares of Commerce Bancshares stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.24, for a total transaction of $70,696.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 211,929 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,258,583.12. The trade was a 10.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 78,434 shares of company stock valued at $5,248,272. Corporate insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Commerce Bancshares

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 642,401 shares during the last quarter. Aristotle Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Commerce Bancshares by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Aristotle Capital Management LLC now owns 8,566,476 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $533,777,000 after buying an additional 351,406 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in Commerce Bancshares by 25.5% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,675,031 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $228,991,000 after buying an additional 745,661 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Commerce Bancshares by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,484,463 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $155,756,000 after buying an additional 87,723 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,272,118 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $141,584,000 after acquiring an additional 227,052 shares during the last quarter. 70.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.