Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Grows Position in Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund grew its stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 24,904 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 995 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Commerce Bancshares were worth $1,552,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CBSH. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 7,407.2% during the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 362,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,556,000 after purchasing an additional 358,066 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 219,826 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 7.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,396,740 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $142,951,000 after acquiring an additional 163,782 shares in the last quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 17.7% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Zacks Investment Management bought a new position in shares of Commerce Bancshares during the third quarter valued at approximately $6,087,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.26% of the company’s stock.

Commerce Bancshares Trading Up 1.5 %

CBSH opened at $65.03 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.50. The company has a market cap of $8.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.80. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. has a 12-month low of $47.89 and a 12-month high of $72.75.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.06. Commerce Bancshares had a return on equity of 16.31% and a net margin of 25.24%. The firm had revenue of $422.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $417.48 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Commerce Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

Commerce Bancshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.275 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Commerce Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Commerce Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.43%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Patricia R. Kellerhals sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.55, for a total transaction of $34,275.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 22,265 shares in the company, valued at $1,526,265.75. This trade represents a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman David W. Kemper sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.22, for a total value of $311,490.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 23,725 shares in the company, valued at $1,642,244.50. This trade represents a 15.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 86,054 shares of company stock worth $5,771,192 over the last three months. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CBSH has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James downgraded Commerce Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. 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. StockNews.com upgraded Commerce Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Commerce Bancshares from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Commerce Bancshares from $66.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat.com, Commerce Bancshares has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.83.

Commerce Bancshares 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.