O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH)

O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) by 28.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,088 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,344 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Commerce Bancshares were worth $940,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC increased its stake in Commerce Bancshares by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 110,423 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,559,000 after buying an additional 14,775 shares in the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares during the third quarter worth approximately $513,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its stake in Commerce Bancshares by 55,693.3% in the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 8,369 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $497,000 after purchasing an additional 8,354 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its stake in Commerce Bancshares by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 10,816 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $644,000 after purchasing an additional 694 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Commerce Bancshares by 11.4% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 58,968 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,502,000 after purchasing an additional 6,043 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Commerce Bancshares from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $66.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Commerce Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Commerce Bancshares from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James downgraded Commerce Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Commerce Bancshares from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.83.

Commerce Bancshares Stock Performance

CBSH stock opened at $55.85 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $7.49 billion, a PE ratio of 13.93, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.71. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. has a one year low of $48.49 and a one year high of $72.75. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $63.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $64.33.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $422.10 million for 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Commerce Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Commerce Bancshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $0.275 per share. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Commerce Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Commerce Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.43%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Commerce Bancshares

In other news, CEO John W. Kemper sold 26,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.28, for a total transaction 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 $14,258,583.12. This trade represents a 10.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $914,285.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 86,246 shares in the company, valued at $5,844,028.96. This represents a 13.53 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 78,434 shares of company stock worth $5,248,272 over the last three months. Insiders own 3.10% 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.