Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Receives $52.50 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $52.50.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Cathay General Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd.

Insider Activity

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.23, for a total transaction of $50,230.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 2,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $100,460. The trade was a 33.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Dunson K. Cheng sold 7,590 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.81, for a total transaction of $362,877.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman owned 138,360 shares in the company, valued at $6,614,991.60. The trade was a 5.20% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 33,590 shares of company stock worth $1,584,718. 4.76% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cathay General Bancorp

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 3.5% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,579,719 shares of the bank’s stock worth $75,842,000 after purchasing an additional 53,621 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Cathay General Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,348,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1,274,076.3% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 484,187 shares of the bank’s stock worth $23,430,000 after buying an additional 484,149 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 375.1% in the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 420,509 shares of the bank’s stock worth $20,189,000 after acquiring an additional 331,997 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 25.0% in the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 386,291 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $18,546,000 after acquiring an additional 77,228 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

Cathay General Bancorp stock opened at $54.22 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.04. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12 month low of $36.06 and a 12 month high of $54.99. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $50.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $48.68. The company has a market cap of $3.69 billion, a PE ratio of 11.94 and a beta of 0.87.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 22nd. The bank reported $1.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.13. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 22.76% and a return on equity of 10.89%. The company had revenue of $222.83 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.76 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.12 EPS. Research analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Monday, December 1st were issued a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 1st. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.96%.

Cathay General Bancorp Company Profile

Cathay General Bancorp is a bank holding company headquartered in Los Angeles, California, trading on NASDAQ under the symbol CATY. Its principal subsidiary, Cathay Bank, provides a full suite of financial services to commercial, institutional and retail clients. As a community-focused institution, the company emphasizes relationship banking and tailored solutions for businesses and individuals.

Founded in 1962 by a group of Chinese American entrepreneurs, Cathay has expanded from a single branch operation in downtown Los Angeles into one of the largest Asian-American banks in the United States.