Cathay General Bancorp (CATY) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

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. It also provides loan products, such as commercial mortgage loans, commercial loans, small business administration loans, residential mortgage loans, real estate construction loans, and home equity lines of credit, as well as installment loans to individuals for household, and other consumer expenditures. In addition, the company offers trade financing, letter of credit, wire transfer, forward currency spot and forward contract, safe deposit, collection, automatic teller machine, Internet banking, investment, and other customary bank services, as well as securities and insurance products. Cathay General Bancorp was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $49.47 to $50.35
• 50-Day Range: $44.54 to $50.42
• 52-Week Range: $36.06 to $55.29
• Volume: 317,262 shs
• Average Volume: 366,109 shs
• Market Capitalization: $3.45 billion
• P/E Ratio: 12.06
• Dividend Yield: 2.72%
• Price Target: $49.71
• Consensus Rating: Hold

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Cathay General Bancorp scored higher than 76% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 369th out of 941 stocks in the finance sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 1.1 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Hold

Consensus Rating

Cathay General Bancorp has received a consensus rating of Hold. The company's average rating score is 2.14, and is based on 2 buy ratings, 4 hold ratings, and 1 sell rating.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Cathay General Bancorp has only been the subject of 3 research reports in the past 90 days.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 6.26%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Cathay General Bancorp are expected to grow by 6.26% in the coming year, from $4.47 to $4.75 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Cathay General Bancorp is 12.06, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 270.85.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Cathay General Bancorp is 12.06, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Finance sector average P/E ratio of about 228.59.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Cathay General Bancorp has a P/B Ratio of 1.19. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 4.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

2.00% of the float of Cathay General Bancorp has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Cathay General Bancorp has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 3.1, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Cathay General Bancorp has recently decreased by 2.92%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving.

Dividend

• Score: 2.5 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Moderate

Dividend Yield

Cathay General Bancorp pays a meaningful dividend of 2.73%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

Cathay General Bancorp does not have a long track record of dividend growth.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Cathay General Bancorp is 32.85%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, Cathay General Bancorp will have a dividend payout ratio of 28.63% next year. This indicates that Cathay General Bancorp will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

Sustainability and ESG

• Score: 2.7 / 5
• Environmental Score: -0.54

Percentage of Shares Shorted

2.00% of the float of Cathay General Bancorp has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Cathay General Bancorp has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 3.1, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Cathay General Bancorp has recently decreased by 2.92%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving.

News and Social Media

• Score: 3.0 / 5
• News Sentiment: 1.48

News Sentiment

Cathay General Bancorp has a news sentiment score of 1.48. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 1.18 average news sentiment score of Finance companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 6 news articles for Cathay General Bancorp this week, compared to 5 articles on an average week.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.7 / 5
• Insider Trading: N/A

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Cathay General Bancorp insiders have not sold or bought any company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

Only 4.85% of the stock of Cathay General Bancorp is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

75.01% of the stock of Cathay General Bancorp is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

CATY Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have CATY shares performed this year?

Cathay General Bancorp's stock was trading at $47.61 on January 1st, 2025. Since then, CATY stock has increased by 4.8% and is now trading at $49.91.

How were Cathay General Bancorp's earnings last quarter?

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July, 22nd. The bank reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.10. Cathay General Bancorp's quarterly revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year.
Read the conference call transcript.

Is Cathay General Bancorp buying back stock?

Cathay General Bancorp's board initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, June 4th 2025, which permits the company to buy back $150,000,000 in outstanding shares, according to EventVestor. This means that the company could buy up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Who are Cathay General Bancorp's major shareholders?

Cathay General Bancorp's top institutional shareholders include State Street Corp (5.08%), Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. (4.21%), Geode Capital Management LLC (2.48%) and Invesco Ltd. (2.18%). Insiders that own company stock include Peter Wu, Anthony M Tang, Dunson K Cheng, Kim R Bingham, Richard Sun and Thomas M Lo.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of Cathay General Bancorp?

Shares of CATY stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.

What other stocks do shareholders of Cathay General Bancorp own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Cathay General Bancorp investors own include American Water Works (AWK), Waste Connections (WCN), The RMR Group (RMR), DiamondRock Hospitality (DRH), AU Optronics (AUOTY), iShares Micro-Cap ETF (IWC) and Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR).

Company Calendar

• Record date for 6/9 Dividend: 5/29/2025
• Ex-Dividend for 6/9 Dividend: 5/29/2025
• Dividend Payable: 6/09/2025
• Last Earnings: 7/22/2025
• Record date for 9/8 Dividend: 8/28/2025
• Ex-Dividend for 9/8 Dividend: 8/28/2025
• Today: 8/30/2025
• Dividend Payable: 9/08/2025
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 10/20/2025
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2025

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
• Sector: Finance
• Industry: BANKS - WEST
• Sub-Industry: Regional Banks
• Current Symbol: NASDAQ:CATY
• CIK: 861842
• Web: www.cathaybank.com
• Phone: (213) 625-4700
• Fax: 302-655-5049
• Employees: 1,266
• Year Founded: 1962

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Cathay General Bancorp: $49.71
• High Price Target: $53.00
• Low Price Target: $43.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: -0.4%
• Consensus Rating: Hold
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.14
• Research Coverage: 7 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $4.14
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 12.06
• Forward P/E Ratio: 11.17
• P/E Growth: N/A
• Net Income: $285.98 million
• Net Margins: 21.44%
• Pretax Margin: 25.32%
• Return on Equity: 10.39%
• Return on Assets: 1.27%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.19
• Current Ratio: 1.05
• Quick Ratio: 1.05

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $1.39 billion
• Price / Sales: 2.48
• Cash Flow: $5.14 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 9.71
• Book Value: $41.77 per share
• Price / Book: 1.19

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 69,090,000
• Free Float: 65,742,000
• Market Cap: $3.45 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.97