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

Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis 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 raised 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. Equities 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 Price Performance

NASDAQ CBSH opened at $53.07 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $51.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $50.92. Commerce Bancshares has a 52-week low of $40.91 and a 52-week high of $56.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.80 and a beta of 0.79.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.86 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $397.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $389.49 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Commerce Bancshares will post 3.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CBSH has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Commerce Bancshares from $46.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James upgraded shares of Commerce Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $61.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised shares of Commerce Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of Commerce Bancshares in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Commerce Bancshares news, SVP Patricia R. Kellerhals sold 730 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 24th. The stock was 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 $1,399,294.74. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Patricia R. Kellerhals sold 730 shares of the 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 directly owns 25,502 shares in the company, valued at $1,399,294.74. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 50,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,648,429.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,321 shares of company stock worth $752,387 in the last quarter. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Commerce Bancshares

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CBSH. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Commerce Bancshares by 102,920.9% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 133,790,172 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,107,097,000 after acquiring an additional 133,660,305 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 558,017 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,934,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $638,003,000 after purchasing an additional 217,024 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Commerce Bancshares by 18.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,736,375 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $376,761,000 after buying an additional 1,227,825 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 2.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,304,379 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $379,739,000 after acquiring an additional 111,594 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.26% of the company’s stock.

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.