Bayforest Capital Ltd Boosts Stock Position in Commerce Bancshares, Inc. $CBSH

Bayforest Capital Ltd lifted its holdings in Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) by 98.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,701 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,320 shares during the quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd’s holdings in Commerce Bancshares were worth $417,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its position in Commerce Bancshares by 1.9% in the second quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,483,309 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $92,217,000 after acquiring an additional 27,813 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Commerce Bancshares in the second quarter worth about $204,000. Vest Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 23.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 33,296 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,070,000 after purchasing an additional 6,291 shares during the period. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 122,503 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,616,000 after purchasing an additional 1,086 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 9,573 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $598,000 after purchasing an additional 564 shares during the period. 70.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on CBSH. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Hovde Group started coverage on shares of Commerce Bancshares in a research note on Monday, October 6th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $69.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Commerce Bancshares in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. They set a “hold” rating and a $63.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Commerce Bancshares from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.43.

Commerce Bancshares Price Performance

Commerce Bancshares stock opened at $56.66 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $7.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.25 and a beta of 0.59. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $52.69 and a 1 year high of $72.75. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $60.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $61.37.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $445.76 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $434.11 million. Commerce Bancshares had a net margin of 26.37% and a return on equity of 16.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.02 EPS. Research analysts expect that Commerce Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Commerce Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were issued a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 5th. Commerce Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.19%.

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.