Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 4,920,000 shares, an increase of 10.1% from the September 15th total of 4,470,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,050,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.4 days. Currently, 3.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Christine M. Moore sold 2,545 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.51, for a total transaction of $146,362.95. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 27,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,605,104.10. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Comerica

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in Comerica during the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in Comerica in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $37,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in Comerica by 39.3% during the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 737 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 208 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in Comerica by 2,723.3% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 847 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 817 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Comerica by 50.2% in the 1st quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.74% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CMA. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Comerica from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Raymond James upgraded Comerica from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Comerica from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $50.00 to $69.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. StockNews.com downgraded Comerica from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their target price on Comerica from $53.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $59.62.

Comerica Price Performance

Shares of Comerica stock traded up $0.28 during trading on Thursday, hitting $62.60. 2,137,752 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,150,351. Comerica has a twelve month low of $37.40 and a twelve month high of $63.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $57.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.69. The company has a market cap of $8.30 billion, a PE ratio of 12.45 and a beta of 1.23.

Comerica (NYSE:CMA) last posted its earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The financial services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $812.79 million. Comerica had a net margin of 12.15% and a return on equity of 15.01%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.01 EPS. Analysts forecast that Comerica will post 5.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Comerica Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Comerica’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.46%.

About Comerica

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.