Good quarter for CIBC

Article Excerpt

CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE $95 is a buy. The bank (Toronto symbol CM; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 942.3 million; Market cap: $89.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 3.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cibc.com) cut its loan-loss provisions in its fiscal 2024 fourth quarter, ended October 31, 2024, by 22.6%, to $419 million from $541 million a year earlier. That’s due to lower interest rates and improving payments on its U.S. commercial loan portfolio. The lower provisions helped lift CIBC’s earnings before unusual items in the quarter by 24.2%, to $1.88 billion from $1.51 billion a year earlier. Due to more shares outstanding, per-share earnings improved 21.7%, to $1.91 a share from $1.57. Even though the stock is up over 60% in the past year, it still trades at an attractive 12.3 times the likely fiscal 2025 earnings of $7.70 a share. As well, with the January 2025 payment, CIBC will raise your quarterly dividend by 7.8%, to $0.97…