Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Acquires New Shares in Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 5,312 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $316,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CBSH. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in Commerce Bancshares by 138.3% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 31,872 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,696,000 after acquiring an additional 18,496 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its stake in Commerce Bancshares by 22.1% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 6,373 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $339,000 after acquiring an additional 1,155 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Commerce Bancshares in the second quarter valued at about $1,226,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Commerce Bancshares during the second quarter worth about $436,000. Finally, Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Commerce Bancshares by 18.7% during the second quarter. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,086 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $339,000 after buying an additional 959 shares during the period. 70.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CBSH shares. Morgan Stanley cut Commerce Bancshares from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $64.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective 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. Piper Sandler set a $68.50 price objective on Commerce Bancshares and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Commerce Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.07.

Commerce Bancshares Stock Performance

CBSH opened at $68.33 on Wednesday. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $47.09 and a 52-week high of $72.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.76 billion, a PE ratio of 17.79, a PEG ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.77. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $65.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.61.

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

Commerce Bancshares Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman David W. Kemper sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chairman now directly owns 1,151,994 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $71,170,189.32. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Patricia R. Kellerhals sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.23, for a total value of $124,460.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,381 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,454,999.63. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 38,316 shares of company stock valued at $2,420,311 over the last three months. Insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

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.