Given that you clicked on this article, it seems safe to assume you either own stock in Comerica (CMA -1.42%) or are considering buying shares in the near future. If so, then you've come to the right place. The table below reveals the nine most critical numbers investors need to know about Comerica stock before deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold it.
But before getting to that, a brief introduction is in order. Comerica traces its roots back to 1849, when its predecessor company, Detroit Savings Fund Institute, was founded by Elon Farnsworth. Since then, it relocated to Dallas, Texas and transformed into one of the largest regional banks in the nation. Among other accomplishments, its website boasts that the bank is located in seven of the 10 largest U.S. cities, is the second largest pre-paid commercial card issuer, and is ranked tenth among other banks in terms of commercial and industrial loans. As of the end of last year, it had $65.4 billion in assets, ranking in size between M&T Bank at $83 billion and Huntington Bancshares at $56 billion.
As you can see in the table above, Comerica's strongest suits are its management of credit risk and its low valuation. With respect to the former, its non-performing loans ratio is a full 66 basis points less than the industry average. And with respect to the latter, Comerica stock currently trades for 1.08 times tangible book value, roughly a third less than its typical peer.
On the other hand, the reason Comerica stock trades at such a relatively paltry multiple is because its operations exhibit a number of weaknesses. In the first case, its net interest margin is woefully below the average, at 3.03% and 3.7%, respectively. As a direct result of this, its 7.6% return on equity is approximately half of what you'd want to see. And finally, it pays out less than a fifth of its earnings via dividends, another red flag for potential investors.
