Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $52.50.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Dunson K. Cheng sold 14,000 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chairman owned 155,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,211,128. The trade was a 8.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $50,230.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 33,590 shares of company stock valued at $1,584,718. Company insiders own 4.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cathay General Bancorp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Cathay General Bancorp during the second quarter worth $485,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 14.8% during the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 174,987 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $8,004,000 after acquiring an additional 22,558 shares during the last quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp in the second quarter valued at about $1,714,000. Moody Aldrich Partners LLC increased its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 96.7% during the third quarter. Moody Aldrich Partners LLC now owns 81,799 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,927,000 after purchasing an additional 40,214 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Cathay General Bancorp during the second quarter worth about $831,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of CATY stock opened at $54.10 on Friday. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12-month low of $36.06 and a 12-month high of $54.99. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $50.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $48.62. 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 company has a market cap of $3.68 billion, a PE ratio of 11.92 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

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

About Cathay General Bancorp

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.