Goldman Sachs Downgrades Comerica (CMA) To Neutral

Goldman Sachs Group analysts Richard Ramsden, Brian Foran, Daniel Harris and Jessica Binder Graham downgraded shares of Comerica Incorporated CMA to Neutral, down from the previous rating of Buy. The analysts said that Comerica Incorporated had a lot of positives, such as insulation from regulatory risk and a strong balance sheet. However, they viewed the Comerica Incorporated shares' upside as limited. The Goldman Sachs Group analysts wrote, "upside to our target is somewhat modest at about 15% and the main catalysts from here for a resumption of normalized earnings are (1) rising rates, which will bring the net interest margin back to normalized levels – given recent events, the Goldman Sachs economists’ forecast for 0-25 bp Fed Funds until 2012 seems even more likely; and (2) the decline in commercial (C&I) loan growth, which is showing tentative signs of bottoming, but which ultimately is based on commercial clients’ confidence to borrow money to invest in their businesses – and thus would seem to be one part of regional banks’ business that actually could be hurt by the uncertainty factor from Europe."