Analysts Set Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Price Target at $52.00

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the five research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $51.75.

CATY has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd.

Insider Activity at Cathay General Bancorp

In related news, SVP May K. Chan sold 558 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $31,248.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 2,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,808. This represents a 17.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.33, for a total value of $1,146,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 275,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,780,197.16. The trade was a 6.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 25,394 shares of company stock valued at $1,421,341. Insiders own 4.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 0.4% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,050,007 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $201,930,000 after purchasing an additional 17,444 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,685,203 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $81,547,000 after purchasing an additional 105,484 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $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 valued at $32,398,000 after purchasing an additional 48,034 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 13.3% during 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 during the period. 75.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

NASDAQ CATY opened at $57.27 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $3.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.81 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $52.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $51.04. Cathay General Bancorp has a twelve month low of $41.83 and a twelve month high of $58.00.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.10. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.37% and a net margin of 23.79%.The company had revenue of $213.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.27 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, April 23rd that permits the company to buyback $150,000.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the bank to repurchase up to 4,164,630.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 28th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.34%.

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.