Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Zacks Research

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) was upgraded by stock analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms also recently commented on CATY. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cathay General Bancorp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.75.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CATY opened at $61.62 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $57.11 and a 200-day moving average of $52.87. Cathay General Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $43.65 and a fifty-two week high of $61.97. The stock has a market cap of $4.13 billion, a PE ratio of 12.71 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.10. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.37% and a net margin of 23.79%.The company had revenue of $213.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.26 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Cathay General Bancorp announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, April 23rd that authorizes the company to repurchase $150,000.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the bank to repurchase up to 4,164,630.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Chang Liu sold 4,836 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total transaction of $243,492.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 127,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,435,686.65. This represents a 3.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.33, for a total transaction of $1,146,600.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 275,252 shares in the company, valued at $15,780,197.16. This trade represents a 6.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 25,394 shares of company stock worth $1,421,341 over the last three months. 4.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Danske Bank A S purchased a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp during the 3rd quarter valued at $48,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 55.8% during the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,525 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 546 shares in the last quarter. Torren Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at $76,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at $80,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 319.7% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,704 shares of the bank’s stock worth $78,000 after buying an additional 1,298 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

Cathay General Bancorp Company Profile

Cathay General Bancorp is a bank holding company headquartered in Los Angeles, California, trading on NASDAQ under the symbol CATY. Its principal subsidiary, Cathay Bank, provides a full suite of financial services to commercial, institutional and retail clients. As a community-focused institution, the company emphasizes relationship banking and tailored solutions for businesses and individuals.

Founded in 1962 by a group of Chinese American entrepreneurs, Cathay has expanded from a single branch operation in downtown Los Angeles into one of the largest Asian-American banks in the United States.