Wall Street Zen Upgrades Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) to “Hold”

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Monday.

CATY has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stephens lowered Cathay General Bancorp from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $53.00 price objective on Cathay General Bancorp and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, DA Davidson raised their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cathay General Bancorp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $49.71.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Down 1.6%

CATY stock opened at $47.92 on Monday. Cathay General Bancorp has a twelve month low of $36.06 and a twelve month high of $55.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a market cap of $3.31 billion, a PE ratio of 11.57 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day moving average of $48.01 and a 200 day moving average of $44.73.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 10.39% and a net margin of 21.44%.The company had revenue of $196.61 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $197.04 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, June 4th that permits the company to repurchase $150.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the bank to reacquire up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Cathay General Bancorp

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of CATY. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 310,246 shares of the bank’s stock worth $14,771,000 after acquiring an additional 14,121 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 31,770 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,513,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 118.1% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 90,721 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,319,000 after acquiring an additional 49,129 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 39,635 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,887,000 after acquiring an additional 1,545 shares during the period. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 44.2% in the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 21,010 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,000,000 after acquiring an additional 6,436 shares during the period. 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.