Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Raises Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Price Target to $56.00

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) had its target price hoisted by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $45.00 to $56.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “market perform” rating on the bank’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price objective points to a potential upside of 8.72% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Wedbush raised their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cathay General Bancorp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.75.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ CATY traded up $0.25 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $51.51. 25,801 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 322,786. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12-month low of $33.88 and a 12-month high of $55.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $47.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $42.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.67 billion, a PE ratio of 12.91 and a beta of 1.12.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.95 by ($0.01). Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.30% and a net margin of 20.57%. The company had revenue of $359.86 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $182.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.13 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 3.99 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Cathay General Bancorp

In related news, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.00, for a total transaction of $42,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,359 shares in the company, valued at $157,873. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.87, for a total value of $2,114,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 295,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,609,973.24. This represents a 11.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 48,189 shares of company stock valued at $2,500,047. 4.76% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CATY. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 19.8% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,262,970 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,639,000 after buying an additional 208,599 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 4.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,194,232 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $158,206,000 after purchasing an additional 176,215 shares during the period. Foundry Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp in the third quarter valued at approximately $7,493,000. Pure Portfolios Holdings LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp in the third quarter valued at approximately $6,271,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 3.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,758,777 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $118,489,000 after purchasing an additional 87,847 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

About Cathay General Bancorp

Cathay General Bancorp operates as the holding company for Cathay Bank that offers various commercial banking products and services to individuals, professionals, and small to medium-sized businesses in the United States. The company offers various deposit products, including passbook accounts, checking accounts, money market deposit accounts, certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, and public funds deposits.