Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the five ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $39.00.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. StockNews.com lowered Cathay General Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, April 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $46.00 to $41.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $44.00 price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd.

Institutional Trading of Cathay General Bancorp

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,254,816 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $367,917,000 after buying an additional 196,146 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,850,356 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $171,613,000 after acquiring an additional 150,331 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,053,405 shares of the bank’s stock worth $91,520,000 after acquiring an additional 25,421 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,654,350 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $57,505,000 after purchasing an additional 75,749 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 8.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,540,402 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $53,543,000 after purchasing an additional 124,851 shares during the period. 75.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CATY opened at $36.77 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The company has a market cap of $2.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.13 and a beta of 1.12. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $37.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.89. Cathay General Bancorp has a 1-year low of $27.75 and a 1-year high of $45.72.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $339.25 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $188.85 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 13.02% and a net margin of 24.41%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.32 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Cathay General Bancorp will post 3.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 28th were paid a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 27th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.70%. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 30.09%.

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.