Wells Fargo & Company Upgrades Comerica (NYSE:CMA) to “Equal Weight”

Comerica (NYSE:CMA) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wells Fargo & Company from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note issued on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm presently has a $73.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $51.00. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 5.92% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on CMA. Stephens upped their price objective on Comerica from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. DA Davidson upped their price target on Comerica from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Comerica from $58.00 to $56.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Comerica from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of Comerica from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $55.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Comerica has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.86.

Comerica Trading Down 1.7 %

Comerica stock opened at $68.92 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. Comerica has a 12-month low of $42.55 and a 12-month high of $71.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.23 and a beta of 1.22. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $61.89 and a 200 day moving average of $55.67.

Comerica (NYSE:CMA) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $806.49 million. Comerica had a net margin of 11.17% and a return on equity of 12.54%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.84 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Comerica will post 5.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Comerica announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, November 5th that permits the company to repurchase 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Comerica

In other news, 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 value of $470,480.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,428 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,021,821.60. This represents a 31.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Allysun C. Fleming sold 1,392 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.83, for a total value of $95,811.36. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $600,885.90. This represents a 13.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 18,001 shares of company stock worth $1,123,650. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Comerica

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CMA. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in Comerica by 15.3% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 223,983 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,315,000 after buying an additional 29,640 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of Comerica by 3.8% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 9,067 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $499,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Comerica by 10.6% in the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 4,208 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $231,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Comerica by 41.6% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 99,981 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,498,000 after purchasing an additional 29,366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Comerica by 99.4% during the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 15,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $860,000 after purchasing an additional 7,798 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.74% of the company’s stock.

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.