Verition Fund Management LLC Purchases Shares of 8,641 Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH)

Verition Fund Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 8,641 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $513,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CBSH. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in Commerce Bancshares by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,509,796 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $195,776,000 after purchasing an additional 240,938 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Commerce Bancshares by 19.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,069,924 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $115,453,000 after buying an additional 342,793 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its holdings in Commerce Bancshares by 15.4% in the second quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,260,999 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $70,339,000 after purchasing an additional 168,550 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 624,715 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,846,000 after buying an additional 3,391 shares during the period. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 2.5% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 567,469 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,653,000 after purchasing an additional 13,772 shares during the last quarter. 70.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on CBSH shares. StockNews.com upgraded Commerce Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Commerce Bancshares from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $64.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Commerce Bancshares from $62.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Piper Sandler set a $68.50 price objective on Commerce Bancshares and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Commerce Bancshares from $66.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.07.

Commerce Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of Commerce Bancshares stock opened at $68.33 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $8.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.77. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $47.09 and a 52-week high of $72.75. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $66.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $61.66.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.07. Commerce Bancshares had a return on equity of 15.93% and a net margin of 24.15%. The company had revenue of $421.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $412.85 million. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Commerce Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Commerce Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Commerce Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.13%.

Insider Activity

In other Commerce Bancshares news, Chairman David W. Kemper sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.78, for a total value of $1,853,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 1,151,994 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $71,170,189.32. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Patricia R. Kellerhals sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.55, for a total value of $34,275.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 22,265 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,526,265.75. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 38,816 shares of company stock valued at $2,454,586. Company insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

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.