Cortex-M3 ldr r8, =#20 generates cmp r0, #20 instruction

Hi

I am working on writing assembly for a Cortex-M3 chip, and I just came across something interesting. When I try to compile `ldr r8, = #20` the assembler generates `cmp r0, #20` instruction. This happens for all the high registers. I don't know if this is an intended behavior or not, but it doesn't happen for higher numbers (> 255) and mov instruction. For example:

ldr r8, = #1245 - works fine
mov r8, #20 - works fine
ldr r8, = #20 - do not work.

I use the following to compile.
arm-none-eabi-as.exe -mcpu=cortex-m3 -mthumb .\temp.s -o temp.elf

Here is the part of the code:
.thumb
.syntax unified
...
_start:
 ldr r5, = #1234
 ldr r4, = #1234
 ldr r8, = #20
 mov r8, #20
 ldr r3, = #1000

Here is what it generates:
00000008 <_start>:
   8: f240 45d2 movw r5, #1234 ; 0x4d2
   c: f240 44d2 movw r4, #1234 ; 0x4d2
  10: 2814 cmp r0, #20
  12: f04f 0814 mov.w r8, #20
  16: f44f 737a mov.w r3, #1000 ; 0x3e8

Can you please advise?

arm-none-eabi-as.exe --version
GNU assembler (GNU Tools for ARM Embedded Processors) 2.26.2.20160923

Thanks,
Furkan