State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Sells 24,825 Shares of Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lessened its stake in shares of Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) by 39.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 37,603 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 24,825 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Comerica were worth $1,919,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Comerica by 105.3% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 182,402 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $10,031,000 after acquiring an additional 3,595,036 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Comerica in the 4th quarter worth about $80,691,000. Azora Capital LP bought a new stake in Comerica in the fourth quarter worth about $63,548,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Comerica by 51.4% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,564,217 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $143,109,000 after buying an additional 870,812 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Comerica by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,878,129 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $941,968,000 after buying an additional 676,959 shares during the last quarter. 80.74% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on CMA shares. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Comerica from $72.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Comerica from $48.00 to $45.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Comerica from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $50.00 to $69.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Comerica from $58.00 to $54.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Comerica from $50.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.32.

Comerica Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Comerica stock opened at $61.49 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The company has a market cap of $8.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.22 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $55.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $52.66. Comerica Incorporated has a 52-week low of $37.40 and a 52-week high of $61.74.

Comerica (NYSE:CMA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The financial services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.30. Comerica had a net margin of 12.15% and a return on equity of 15.01%. The business had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $812.79 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.01 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Comerica Incorporated will post 5.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comerica Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Comerica’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Christine M. Moore sold 2,545 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.51, for a total transaction of $146,362.95. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 27,910 shares in the company, valued at $1,605,104.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.19% 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.