HighTower Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Position in Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA)

HighTower Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA – Get Rating) by 25.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,641 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 11,002 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Comerica were worth $2,111,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Baldwin Brothers LLC MA purchased a new stake in shares of Comerica during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Almanack Investment Partners LLC. purchased a new stake in Comerica in the third quarter worth about $38,000. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in Comerica by 65.4% in the fourth quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 589 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 233 shares during the period. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new stake in Comerica in the third quarter worth about $64,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in Comerica by 28.7% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,147 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $104,000 after buying an additional 256 shares during the period. 81.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on CMA shares. Raymond James upgraded shares of Comerica from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $57.00 in a report on Thursday, April 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Comerica from $85.00 to $52.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Comerica from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $46.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, May 5th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Comerica from $72.00 to $53.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 3rd. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Comerica from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.23.

Comerica Trading Up 2.0 %

NYSE:CMA opened at $40.48 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.13. The company has a market cap of $5.33 billion, a PE ratio of 4.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.14. Comerica Incorporated has a 12 month low of $28.40 and a 12 month high of $87.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26.

Comerica (NYSE:CMA – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 20th. The financial services provider reported $2.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by $0.13. Comerica had a net margin of 30.16% and a return on equity of 24.34%. The company had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $966.40 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.37 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Comerica Incorporated will post 8.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Comerica Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 15th will be paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.02%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 14th. Comerica’s payout ratio is currently 29.93%.

Comerica Profile

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Comerica, Inc engages in the provision of financial services. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Bank, Retail Bank, Wealth Management, Finance, and Other. The Commercial Bank segment offers various products and services, including commercial loans and lines of credit, deposits, cash management, capital market products, international trade finance, letters of credit, foreign exchange management services, and loan syndication services.