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

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) had its target price dropped by stock analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $56.00 to $55.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “market perform” rating on the bank’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 12.75% from the company’s current price.

CATY has been the topic of several other research reports. Stephens upgraded shares of Cathay General Bancorp from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cathay General Bancorp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.50.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

CATY stock opened at $48.78 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.29 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12-month low of $33.88 and a 12-month high of $55.29. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $49.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.60.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The bank reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.02. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 20.57% and a return on equity of 11.30%. On average, analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 3,359 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $157,873. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 48,189 shares of company stock worth $2,500,047 in the last quarter. Insiders own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 332.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 25,313 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,087,000 after acquiring an additional 19,458 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,713,650 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $73,615,000 after acquiring an additional 20,840 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,758,777 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $118,489,000 after acquiring an additional 87,847 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 104.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 145,690 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,257,000 after acquiring an additional 74,394 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 156,125 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,706,000 after acquiring an additional 9,724 shares during the period. 75.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cathay General Bancorp Company Profile

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.