Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Comerica Call Options (NYSE:CMA)

Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders acquired 12,497 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 139% compared to the typical daily volume of 5,234 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Comerica news, EVP Wendy Bridges sold 3,034 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.74, for a total value of $160,013.16. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 17,460 shares in the company, valued at $920,840.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Cassandra M. Mckinney sold 1,616 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.64, for a total value of $88,298.24. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $454,276.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Wendy Bridges sold 3,034 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.74, for a total transaction of $160,013.16. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 17,460 shares in the company, valued at approximately $920,840.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CMA. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Comerica by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,878,129 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $941,968,000 after buying an additional 676,959 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Comerica by 9.4% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 13,313,998 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $578,094,000 after buying an additional 1,145,951 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Comerica by 3.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,675,947 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $550,764,000 after buying an additional 284,884 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in Comerica by 1,192.2% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,878,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $168,405,000 after buying an additional 3,578,355 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Comerica by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,343,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $186,580,000 after buying an additional 48,526 shares during the last quarter. 80.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CMA has been the subject of several analyst reports. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $56.00 price target on shares of Comerica in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Comerica from $49.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Argus lowered shares of Comerica from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of Comerica from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Comerica from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Comerica has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $57.67.

Comerica Price Performance

CMA traded down $0.82 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $50.03. 1,405,883 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,098,695. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.94. Comerica has a 12-month low of $28.40 and a 12-month high of $57.39. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.38 and a 200 day simple moving average of $49.08. The company has a market cap of $6.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.90 and a beta of 1.27.

Comerica (NYSE:CMA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 19th. The financial services provider reported $1.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.08. Comerica had a net margin of 16.71% and a return on equity of 19.41%. The business had revenue of $1.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $826.07 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Comerica will post 5.09 EPS for the current year.

Comerica Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.68%. Comerica’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.10%.

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.