Short Interest in Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) Rises By 13.0%

Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,780,000 shares, an increase of 13.0% from the May 31st total of 2,460,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 464,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.0 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Commerce Bancshares news, CEO John W. Kemper sold 26,581 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.77, for a total value of $1,509,003.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 198,387 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,262,429.99. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 3.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Commerce Bancshares

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at $71,835,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 4.7% during the 4th 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 period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 22.0% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,676,350 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $89,541,000 after buying an additional 302,630 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP boosted its stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 32.4% during the 4th quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 972,255 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $51,928,000 after buying an additional 237,703 shares during the period. Finally, Commerce Bank boosted its stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 7,222,818 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $385,771,000 after buying an additional 196,431 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on CBSH shares. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Commerce Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Commerce Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $61.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Commerce Bancshares presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.71.

Commerce Bancshares Price Performance

Commerce Bancshares stock traded down $0.40 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $55.47. The stock had a trading volume of 308,565 shares, compared to its average volume of 471,036. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $55.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.50. Commerce Bancshares has a twelve month low of $40.91 and a twelve month high of $57.48. The firm has a market cap of $7.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.63, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.76.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 23.33% and a return on equity of 16.78%. The firm had revenue of $397.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $389.49 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Commerce Bancshares will post 3.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Commerce Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 5th were paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 5th. Commerce Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is 30.12%.

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.