Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Sets New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY – Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday. The company traded as high as $65.25 and last traded at $64.4330, with a volume of 12,496 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $64.72.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on CATY. DA Davidson lifted their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $56.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $49.50 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Stephens upped their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. Finally, Benchmark raised shares of Cathay General Bancorp to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.25.

Get Our Latest Research Report on Cathay General Bancorp

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.10. The firm has a market cap of $4.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.91 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 21st. The bank reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by ($0.02). Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 12.14% and a net margin of 25.32%. The business had revenue of $230.55 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $227.45 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.13 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 28th were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 28th. Cathay General Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 28.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cathay General Bancorp

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 1,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were 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 directly owned 2,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $147,554.14. This represents a 40.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Richard Sun sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.31, for a total transaction of $1,266,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,315 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $463,112.65. This represents a 73.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $1,996,362 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 4.53% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $604,644,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,050,007 shares of the bank’s stock worth $201,930,000 after acquiring an additional 17,444 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,799,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,052,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,450,000. 75.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Cathay General Bancorp

(Get Free Report)

Cathay General Bancorp is a bank holding company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Its principal subsidiary, Cathay Bank, provides banking and financial services to individuals, families, businesses and institutions, with a particular focus on serving the Chinese American and broader communities in the markets where it operates.

Cathay Bank offers deposit accounts, residential and commercial real estate loans, commercial and industrial lending, small-business financing, consumer loans, treasury management and other traditional banking services.

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