Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $62.25

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the six ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $62.25.

A number of research firms have recently commented on CATY. Zacks Research lowered shares of Cathay General Bancorp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $49.50 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Stephens increased their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $56.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cathay General Bancorp

In related news, Director Richard Sun sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.31, for a total transaction of $62,310.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,200 shares in the company, valued at $137,082. The trade was a 31.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 1,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.47, for a total value of $99,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 2,362 shares in the company, valued at $147,554.14. This represents a 40.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $1,996,362 in the last three months. 4.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at $604,644,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Cathay General Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth $41,140,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Cathay General Bancorp in the second quarter valued at $40,799,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 1,274,076.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp during the second quarter valued at about $26,052,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of CATY opened at $61.13 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $62.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.94 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. Cathay General Bancorp has a 52-week low of $44.57 and a 52-week high of $65.25.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.02. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.71% and a net margin of 24.66%.The business had revenue of $221.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $218.28 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.10 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Investors of record on Friday, August 28th were given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 28th. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.69%.

Cathay General Bancorp Company Profile

Cathay General Bancorp is a bank holding company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Its principal subsidiary, Cathay Bank, is a full-service commercial bank established in 1962 to serve the financial needs of Chinese American communities. Cathay General Bancorp was formed as the bank’s holding company in 1990.

Cathay Bank provides a range of banking and financial services for businesses, individuals and institutions. Its offerings include commercial and residential real estate loans, commercial and industrial financing, Small Business Administration loans, consumer lending, deposit accounts, cash-management services, online and mobile banking, and wealth-management solutions.

The company primarily serves customers in major metropolitan areas across California and in selected markets in New York, Texas, Washington, Nevada, Maryland, New Jersey and Massachusetts.