Commerce Bancshares Earnings Preview

Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of Commerce Bancshares' (NAS: CBSH) earnings announcement, as the company has wavered between beating and falling short of analyst predictions during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, Jan. 24. Commerce Bancshares is a bank holding company that, through its subsidiaries, engages in general banking business, providing a range of retail, corporate, investment, trust, and asset management products and services to individuals and businesses.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Commerce Bancshares, with nine out of 12 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Commerce Bancshares as much as competitor First Citizens BancShares overall. One out of one analysts rate First Citizens BancShares a buy compared to one out of 12 for Commerce Bancshares. Commerce Bancshares' rating hasn't changed over the past three months.

• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $263 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 3% from the year-ago quarter.

• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.70 per share. Estimates range from $0.65 to $0.73.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see Commerce Bancshares as a good bet, with 63.3% granting it an outperform rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars, as 64% give it an outperform rating. Fools are gung-ho about Commerce Bancshares, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 31 posts in the past 30 days. Commerce Bancshares' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Commerce Bancshares' profit has risen year over year by an average of 23.5% over the past five quarters. Revenue has fallen for the past three quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows net margins over the past four quarters.

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Commerce Bancshares' movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.

At the time thisarticle was published

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