Jefferies Financial Group Reiterates $53.00 Price Target for Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY)

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) received a $53.00 target price from equities researchers at Jefferies Financial Group in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the bank’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective points to a potential upside of 22.91% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $56.00 to $55.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $43.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $51.00 price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.17.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

NASDAQ:CATY opened at $43.12 on Wednesday. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12 month low of $34.75 and a 12 month high of $55.29. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $41.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $45.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.89 and a beta of 0.91.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The bank reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.03. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 10.70% and a net margin of 20.57%. The company had revenue of $187.84 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $186.17 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.05 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Cathay General Bancorp

In related news, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 729 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total value of $32,805.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $180,000. This represents a 15.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 4.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,230,722 shares of the bank’s stock worth $201,426,000 after purchasing an additional 12,684 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 3.8% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,970,173 shares of the bank’s stock worth $127,807,000 after purchasing an additional 108,672 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 3.8% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,577,657 shares of the bank’s stock worth $67,887,000 after purchasing an additional 58,215 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,471,066 shares of the bank’s stock worth $70,037,000 after purchasing an additional 72,532 shares in the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,268,030 shares of the bank’s stock worth $60,371,000 after purchasing an additional 6,081 shares in the last quarter. 75.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Cathay General Bancorp

Cathay General Bancorp operates as the holding company for Cathay Bank that offers various commercial banking products and services to individuals, professionals, and small to medium-sized businesses in the United States. The company offers various deposit products, including passbook accounts, checking accounts, money market deposit accounts, certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, and public funds deposits.