Wedbush Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY)

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Wedbush in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $44.00 price objective on the bank’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 23.84% from the stock’s previous close. Wedbush also issued estimates for Cathay General Bancorp’s Q2 2024 earnings at $0.90 EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $0.96 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $1.04 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $4.00 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $0.99 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $1.03 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $1.10 EPS and Q4 2025 earnings at $1.12 EPS.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on CATY. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cathay General Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 6th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $46.00 to $40.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.40.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of CATY opened at $35.53 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.86 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. Cathay General Bancorp has a 52 week low of $27.24 and a 52 week high of $45.72.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $339.25 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $188.85 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 24.41% and a return on equity of 13.16%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.32 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, Vice Chairman Anthony M. Tang sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.45, for a total value of $304,150.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 204,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,885,525. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 4.76% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board acquired a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the first quarter worth $586,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,254,816 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $367,917,000 after buying an additional 196,146 shares during the last quarter. Willner & Heller LLC acquired a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at $2,014,000. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 18.4% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 861,364 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $38,391,000 after buying an additional 133,852 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 128.8% in the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 96,924 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,320,000 after buying an additional 54,557 shares during the last quarter. 75.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.