It's been a blowout session for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) and many ASX 200 shares so far this Wednesday. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has climbed by a decisive 0.86%, pulling the index back over 8,400 points. But let's talk about what we are seeing with Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares.
Like the broader market, CBA shares have risen enthusiastically so far this hump day. Unlike the market, though, today has also seen this ASX 200 bank stock hit yet another new all-time high.
The CBA share price closed at $172.43 yesterday afternoon. But this morning, those same shares opened at $173.10 before rising as high as $176.40 just after midday. You guessed it, that's a new record high for the bank.
However, that would be old news for many CBA investors. Over the past two years, the bank has set what now seems like countless new records.
Last year, we saw Commonwealth Bank break through $115 and $120 a share for the first time ever. But the bank didn't stop there. $130 a share quickly followed, followed by $140, $150, and $160.
2025 to date has seen the bank climb even higher, hitting $165 a share back in February. CBA crossed $170 for the first time just last week, hitting the milestone on Friday.
Now, only three trading days later, $175 has been breached. At the time of writing, the CBA share price is sitting at $176.25, up 2.17% for the day thus far.
This puts CBA shares up an extraordinary 14.77% year to date in 2025, and up 44.7% over the past 12 months.
Check this all out for yourself below:
Is it too late to buy CBA shares at $176?
Unfortunately for any investor looking at this share price trajectory with envy, most experts are united in their view that CBA has limited upside remaining. In fact, most experts have been calling CBA overvalued for some time now. It's not hard to see why.
Firstly, CBA is trading on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of over 30, and with a very unbank-like dividend yield of just 2.7%.
As my Fool colleague Tristan noted just yesterday, one expert in fund manager Blackwattle has stated that "the average US bank P/E ratio is around 13, and it is less than 10 for UK banks. In other words, investors in CBA shares are paying more than twice as much for a dollar of profit as investors in US banks".
He also pointed out that, according to CBA's own CommSec platform, "of the 15 analyst ratings on CBA shares, 13 are sells, and only two are holds".
Because that dividend yield you can expect from buying CBA shares at the current price is so low, investors buying in today have to rely on even steeper share price rises going forward if they wish to beat the market.
Given that CBA is already at the higher end of the average valuation for any bank in the world, the bank's soaring trajectory seems unlikely to continue using any respectable logic.
Yet we've heard this before, and CBA and the market don't seem to care. Let's see if $180 is next.
