Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) shares were down -1.07% on Thursday when approximately 558,032.00 shares were traded, against the average daily trading volume of 294,606.00. Analysts at Credit Agricole recently upgraded the stock to Underperform from Buy. Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) has a consensus Hold rating, according to Zacks Investment Research. No analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, 3 have assigned a hold rating, Zero says it’s a buy, and 0 have assigned a strong buy rating to the company.

Analysts have a consensus target price of $39.67 in the 12-month period. The price objective is 10.19% higher than the recent closing price of $36.00. The 52-week price range is $25.04-$38.99 and the company has a market capitalization of $2.84 billion.

Cathay General Bancorp (CATY) on January 26, 2017 announced net income of $48.0 million, or $0.60 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2016, and net income of $175.1 million, or $2.19 per share, for the year ended December 31, 2016.

FULL YEAR HIGHLIGHTS

  • Diluted earnings per share increased 17.6% to $0.60 per share for the fourth quarter of 2016 compared to $0.51 per share for the same quarter a year ago.
  • Total loans increased $1.0 billion, or 10.2%, excluding loans held for sale, during 2016, to $11.2 billion at December 31, 2016, compared to $10.2 billion at December 31, 2015.
  • Total assets for the year increased $1.2 billion to $14.5 billion at December 31, 2016 from $13.3 billion at December 31, 2015.

“In the fourth quarter of 2016, our gross loans, excluding loans held for sale, grew by $191 million to $11.2 billion.  The loan growth for 2016 was $1.0 billion, representing an increase of 10.2% for the year.  For the fourth quarter of 2016, our total deposits, increased $736 million to $11.7 billion compared to the third quarter.  For 2016, total deposits grew by $1.2 billion representing an increase of 11.1% for the year.  Also, in November 2016, we increased our dividend by 16.7% to $.21 per share from the $.18 per share paid previously,” commented Pin Tai, Chief Executive Officer and President of the Company.

“The transaction to acquire Sinopac Bancorp, the parent of Far East National Bank, continues to progress and we expect it to be completed in the next several months,” added Dunson Cheng, Executive Chairman of the Board of the Company.

FOURTH QUARTER INCOME STATEMENT REVIEW

Net income for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, was $48.0 million, an increase of $6.6 million, or 15.8%, compared to net income of $41.4 million for the same quarter a year ago.  Diluted earnings per share for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, was $0.60 compared to $0.51 for the same quarter a year ago.