Stephens Cuts Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Price Target to $57.00

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) had its price target cut by stock analysts at Stephens from $60.00 to $57.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the bank’s stock. Stephens’ target price indicates a potential upside of 20.79% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on CATY. Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $56.00 to $55.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cathay General Bancorp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $49.40.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

NASDAQ CATY traded down $1.59 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $47.19. The company had a trading volume of 108,292 shares, compared to its average volume of 310,079. 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 has a 1-year low of $33.88 and a 1-year high of $55.29. The business has a 50 day moving average of $49.51 and a 200-day moving average of $45.60. The company has a market cap of $3.36 billion, a PE ratio of 11.96 and a beta of 1.13.

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

Insider Activity at Cathay General Bancorp

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.87, for a total value of $2,114,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 295,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,609,973.24. This trade represents a 11.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 900 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were 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 owns 3,359 shares in the company, valued at approximately $157,873. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 48,189 shares of company stock valued at $2,500,047. Corporate insiders own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. KBC Group NV increased its stake 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 period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 24,575 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,170,000 after purchasing an additional 2,443 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 96.6% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 5,411 shares of the bank’s stock worth $258,000 after buying an additional 2,659 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 821.4% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 381,764 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $18,176,000 after buying an additional 340,329 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 151,459 shares of the bank’s stock worth $7,256,000 after acquiring an additional 7,186 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

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.