New Age Alpha Advisors LLC Buys New Position in Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH)

New Age Alpha Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 2,823 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $176,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of 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. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in Commerce Bancshares during the third quarter worth $235,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in Commerce Bancshares by 738.6% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 51,727 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,073,000 after purchasing an additional 45,559 shares during the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC grew its stake in Commerce Bancshares by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 11,358 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $675,000 after purchasing an additional 543 shares during the period. Finally, Glenmede Trust Co. NA increased its position in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 11,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $684,000 after purchasing an additional 322 shares during the last quarter. 70.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $72.00 to $66.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Raymond James lowered shares of Commerce Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Commerce Bancshares from $66.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Commerce Bancshares from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.17.

Commerce Bancshares Price Performance

NASDAQ:CBSH opened at $62.30 on Thursday. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $48.49 and a 1 year high of $72.75. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $64.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $64.46. The company has a market cap of $8.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.78.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last posted its 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 return on equity of 16.31% and a net margin of 25.24%. The business had revenue of $422.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $417.48 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Commerce Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Commerce Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $0.275 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Commerce Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.77%. Commerce Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.43%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Commerce Bancshares

In other news, EVP Kevin G. Barth sold 24,870 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.06, for a total transaction of $1,642,912.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 45,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,006,456.66. The trade was a 35.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman David W. Kemper sold 3,708 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.16, for a total transaction of $245,321.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 1,208,311 shares in the company, valued at $79,941,855.76. This represents a 0.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 78,434 shares of company stock valued at $5,248,272 in the last three months. Company insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

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.