Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Lowers Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Price Target to $55.00

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) had its price target cut by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $56.00 to $55.00 in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a market perform rating on the bank’s stock.

CATY has been the subject of several other reports. Stephens raised shares of Cathay General Bancorp from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Wedbush boosted their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.40.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

NASDAQ CATY opened at $46.81 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $49.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $45.74. Cathay General Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $33.88 and a fifty-two week high of $55.29. The company has a market cap of $3.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.82 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The bank reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.02. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 10.75% and a net margin of 20.57%. Sell-side analysts predict that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 27th were given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 27th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.91%. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 900 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.00, for a total value of $42,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,359 shares in the company, valued at approximately $157,873. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.87, for a total transaction of $2,114,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 295,252 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,609,973.24. This represents a 11.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 48,189 shares of company stock worth $2,500,047. Insiders own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. EMC Capital Management grew its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 954.4% during the 4th quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 10,544 shares of the bank’s stock worth $502,000 after purchasing an additional 9,544 shares during the period. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 68.5% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,730 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $178,000 after buying an additional 1,517 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 24,575 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,170,000 after buying an additional 2,443 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 96.6% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 5,411 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $258,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 821.4% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 381,764 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $18,176,000 after purchasing an additional 340,329 shares during the period. 75.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.