Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares have been on form again this week.
So much so, Australia's largest bank's shares climbed to a record high of $110.81 on Wednesday.
This means the CBA share price now up 16% since this time last year.
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Have CBA shares peaked?
Interestingly, it appears as though some retail investors have started to take profit on the belief that CBA's shares may have peaked.
According to CommSec data, Commonwealth Bank was the 14th most traded ASX share on its platform last week.
However, only 26% of trades involving the bank were buys. The remaining 74% of trades were CommSec customers selling the bank's shares.
And given that CommSec is the most widely used brokerage platform in Australia, this is arguably a fair representation of what's happening across other platforms.
What are brokers saying?
The broker community is likely to be supportive of this profit taking. At present, I'm not aware of a single broker with a buy rating on the bank's shares.
One of the most positive brokers out there is UBS with its neutral rating. However, with a price target of $100.00, CBA shares are trading 10% ahead of this level.
Elsewhere, Goldman Sachs is one of the more bearish brokers with its sell rating and $91.60 price target. This suggests that the banking giant's shares could tumble almost 24% from current levels.
Goldman believes that the company's shares don't deserve to trade at such a premium to the rest of the big four banks. Particularly given the sector headwinds it is facing. Last month, it commented:
We are Sell rated on CBA given: i) while operating trends remain strong with volume growth best amongst the major bank peer group , and ii) CBA has the best leverage of the major banks to higher rates, iii) it is also more exposed to sector wide headwinds such as intense mortgage price competition, as well as further potential macro downside that appears likely to more adversely impact the household this cycle. Overall, we do not believe its fundamentals justify the 12-mo forward PER premium it is currently trading on versus peers, compared to the 19% historic average.
Food for thought for CBA shareholders.
