Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call October 18, 2024 8:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Kelly Gage - Director, Investor Relations
Curt Farmer - President, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Jim Herzog - Chief Financial Officer
Peter Sefzik - Chief Banking Officer

Conference Call Participants

Manan Gosalia - Morgan Stanley
John Pancari - Evercore ISI
Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets
Bernard Von Gizycki - Deutsche Bank
Ben Gerlinger - Citi
Chris McGratty - KBW
Samuel Varga - UBS
Michael Rose - Raymond James
Anthony Elian - JPMorgan Chase

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Comerica Bank Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instruction] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Kelly Gage, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Kelly Gage

Thanks, Melissa. Good morning, and welcome to Comerica's Q3 2024 earnings conference call. Participating on this call will be our President, Chairman and CEO, Curt Farmer; Chief Financial Officer, Jim Herzog; Chief Credit Officer, Melinda Chausse; and Chief Banking Officer, Peter Sefzik.

During this presentation, we will be referring to slides, which provide additional details. The presentation slides and our press release are available on the SEC's website as well as in the Investor Relations section of our website, comerica.com.

The presentation and this conference call contain forward looking statements. In that regard, you should be mindful of the risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to vary materially from expectations. Forward looking statements speak only as of the date of this presentation and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Please refer to the safe harbor statement in today's earnings presentation on Slide 2. Also, the presentation and this conference call will reference non-GAAP measures. In that regard, I direct you to the reconciliation of these measures in the earnings materials that are available on our website, comerica.com.

Now, I'll turn the call over to Curt, who will begin on Slide 3.

Curt Farmer

Well, thank you, Kelly, and good morning, everyone. Today, we reported third earnings of $184 million or $1.33 per share, exceeding expectations across most line items. Strong customer activity drove higher average deposits, which offset the impact of lower loans and helped net interest income outperform guidance for the quarter. The downward shift in the rate curve resulted in a meaningful improvement in AOCI, contributing to 23% growth in tangible book value. Credit quality remains solid, reflecting our proven underwriting discipline, as net charge offs remained historically low.