Comerica (NYSE:CMA) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.05 EPS

Comerica (NYSE:CMA) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by ($0.05), Zacks reports. Comerica had a return on equity of 12.54% and a net margin of 11.17%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share.

Comerica Stock Down 5.5 %

Shares of CMA stock opened at $62.73 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $65.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $60.78. The company has a market capitalization of $8.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.68 and a beta of 1.26. Comerica has a one year low of $45.32 and a one year high of $73.45.

Comerica Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Comerica’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Allysun C. Fleming sold 1,392 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.83, for a total value of $95,811.36. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $600,885.90. The trade was a 13.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Comerica announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, November 5th that permits the company to repurchase 10,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on CMA. Bank of America downgraded Comerica from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $52.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. StockNews.com raised Comerica from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Comerica from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $51.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Comerica from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Comerica from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $67.71.

Comerica Company Profile

Comerica Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides various financial products and services. The company operates through Commercial Bank, Retail Bank, Wealth Management, and Finance segments. The Commercial Bank segment offers various products and services, including commercial loans and lines of credit, deposits, cash management, payment solutions, card services, capital market products, international trade finance, letters of credit, foreign exchange management services, and loan syndication services for small and middle market businesses, multinational corporations, and governmental entities.