Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) Plans $0.27 Quarterly Dividend

Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of 0.27 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.04%.

Commerce Bancshares has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 56 consecutive years. Commerce Bancshares has a payout ratio of 32.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Commerce Bancshares to earn $3.34 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.3%.

Commerce Bancshares Trading Up 2.0 %

CBSH opened at $53.07 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.92. The company has a market capitalization of $6.89 billion, a PE ratio of 14.80 and a beta of 0.79. Commerce Bancshares has a 1-year low of $40.91 and a 1-year high of $56.75.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.06. Commerce Bancshares had a return on equity of 16.78% and a net margin of 23.33%. The company had revenue of $397.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $389.49 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. Commerce Bancshares’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Commerce Bancshares will post 3.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CBSH has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Commerce Bancshares from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Commerce Bancshares in a report on Thursday, January 11th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Commerce Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $46.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Commerce Bancshares from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Commerce Bancshares has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Robert S. Holmes sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.66, for a total value of $263,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 50,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,648,429.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Patricia R. Kellerhals sold 730 shares of Commerce Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.87, for a total value of $40,055.10. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 25,502 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,399,294.74. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Robert S. Holmes sold 5,000 shares of Commerce Bancshares stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.66, for a total transaction of $263,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 50,293 shares in the company, valued at $2,648,429.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,321 shares of company stock valued at $752,387 over the last three months. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Commerce Bancshares by 102,920.9% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 133,790,172 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,107,097,000 after purchasing an additional 133,660,305 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in Commerce Bancshares by 192.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,995,152 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $135,810,000 after acquiring an additional 1,313,291 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 18.9% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,736,375 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $376,761,000 after purchasing an additional 1,227,825 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Commerce Bancshares in the fourth quarter worth about $77,332,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Commerce Bancshares by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,372,518 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $660,816,000 after buying an additional 558,017 shares during the last quarter. 70.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.