Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the five research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $52.50.

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

Insider Activity

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.23, for a total transaction of $50,230.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 2,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $100,460. This represents a 33.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Dunson K. Cheng sold 14,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.24, for a total transaction of $647,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman directly owned 155,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,211,128. This represents a 8.24% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,590 shares of company stock worth $1,584,718. Corporate insiders own 4.85% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,579,719 shares of the bank’s stock worth $75,842,000 after buying an additional 53,621 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Cathay General Bancorp during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,140,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 669,527 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,398,000 after acquiring an additional 48,034 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 580,038 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $28,068,000 after purchasing an additional 67,898 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1,274,076.3% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 484,187 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $23,430,000 after purchasing an additional 484,149 shares during the last quarter. 75.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Up 1.0%

CATY opened at $53.33 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a market cap of $3.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.75 and a beta of 0.87. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12 month low of $36.06 and a 12 month high of $54.99. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $50.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $48.84.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 22nd. The bank reported $1.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $222.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.76 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 10.89% and a net margin of 22.76%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.12 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 1st were paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 1st. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Cathay General Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 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.