Phocas Financial Corp. Trims Stake in Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA)

Phocas Financial Corp. decreased its position in shares of Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 130,652 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,231 shares during the period. Phocas Financial Corp. owned 0.10% of Comerica worth $7,827,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Comerica by 51.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,045,656 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $206,468,000 after purchasing an additional 1,370,886 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Comerica by 31.3% during the third quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 2,408,820 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $144,312,000 after acquiring an additional 574,516 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Comerica by 9.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,533,857 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $78,288,000 after purchasing an additional 130,458 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in shares of Comerica by 6.5% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,431,750 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $73,077,000 after buying an additional 87,101 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Comerica by 21.0% in the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 923,009 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $50,756,000 after buying an additional 160,103 shares during the period. 80.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Allysun C. Fleming sold 1,392 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.83, for a total transaction of $95,811.36. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,730 shares in the company, valued at approximately $600,885.90. The trade was a 13.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Bruce Mitchell sold 7,564 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.20, for a total transaction of $470,480.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,428 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,021,821.60. This trade represents a 31.53 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 18,001 shares of company stock valued at $1,123,650 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Comerica Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of CMA opened at $68.28 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.98 billion, a PE ratio of 17.07 and a beta of 1.22. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $62.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $55.82. Comerica Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $42.55 and a fifty-two week high of $71.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.97.

Comerica (NYSE:CMA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The financial services provider reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $806.49 million. Comerica had a return on equity of 12.54% and a net margin of 11.17%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.84 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Comerica Incorporated will post 5.39 EPS for the current year.

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

Comerica Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Comerica’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CMA. Wedbush raised Comerica from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $52.00 to $75.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Comerica from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Comerica from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $69.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Comerica from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Comerica from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.43.

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.