Natixis Advisors LLC Buys 1,828 Shares of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH)

Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) by 10.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 18,918 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,828 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Commerce Bancshares were worth $1,179,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,396,740 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $142,951,000 after buying an additional 163,782 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its stake in Commerce Bancshares by 17.6% in 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 during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,055,430 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $65,764,000 after acquiring an additional 43,928 shares in the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP raised its position in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 899,166 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $56,027,000 after purchasing an additional 7,280 shares during the period. Finally, NFJ Investment Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 17.7% during the 3rd quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC now owns 707,168 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $42,006,000 after purchasing an additional 106,316 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on CBSH shares. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Commerce Bancshares from $72.00 to $66.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Commerce Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $66.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Commerce Bancshares from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Commerce Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.17.

Commerce Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CBSH opened at $62.85 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $64.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.43 billion, a PE ratio of 15.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.78. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. has a 52 week low of $48.49 and a 52 week high of $72.75.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last released its 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 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 firm’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Commerce Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

Commerce Bancshares Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $0.275 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.75%. This is a boost from Commerce Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Commerce Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.43%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Kevin G. Barth sold 24,870 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 45,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,006,456.66. This represents 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 this link. Also, VP David L. Orf sold 1,036 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.24, for a total transaction of $70,696.64. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 22,175 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,513,222. This represents a 4.46 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,434 shares of company stock valued at $5,248,272 over the last 90 days. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.