Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (CBSH) To Go Ex-Dividend on September 5th

Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, July 26th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, September 5th will be paid a dividend of 0.27 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 5th.

Commerce Bancshares has increased its dividend payment by an average of 16.1% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 56 years. Commerce Bancshares has a payout ratio of 27.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Commerce Bancshares to earn $3.89 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 27.8%.

Commerce Bancshares Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of CBSH stock opened at $63.96 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $8.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.84, a PEG ratio of 10.57 and a beta of 0.75. The company’s 50 day moving average is $60.50 and its 200 day moving average is $56.05. Commerce Bancshares has a 52-week low of $40.91 and a 52-week high of $65.86.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.17. Commerce Bancshares had a net margin of 23.62% and a return on equity of 16.50%. The business had revenue of $414.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $406.88 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.97 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Commerce Bancshares will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Commerce Bancshares

In related news, CEO John W. Kemper sold 5,156 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.22, for a total transaction of $336,274.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 198,298 shares in the company, valued at $12,932,995.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Commerce Bancshares news, SVP Patricia R. Kellerhals sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.82, for a total value of $91,230.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 25,381 shares in the company, valued at $1,543,672.42. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO John W. Kemper sold 5,156 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.22, for a total transaction of $336,274.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 198,298 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,932,995.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 46,281 shares of company stock worth $2,975,232 over the last three months. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $58.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted 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, July 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Commerce Bancshares presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $60.00.

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.