Contrasting Cathay General Bancorp (CATY) and Its Competitors

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) is one of 919 publicly-traded companies in the “Banks” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Cathay General Bancorp to related companies based on the strength of its valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, dividends and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Cathay General Bancorp and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cathay General Bancorp	25.32%	12.14%	1.48%
Cathay General Bancorp Competitors	15.64%	9.43%	0.93%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Cathay General Bancorp and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cathay General Bancorp	1	5	1	0	2.00
Cathay General Bancorp Competitors	7470	30209	27786	1473	2.35

Cathay General Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $62.25, indicating a potential downside of 3.03%. As a group, “Banks” companies have a potential upside of 16.80%. Given Cathay General Bancorp’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Cathay General Bancorp has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

75.0% of Cathay General Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.0% of shares of all “Banks” companies are owned by institutional investors. 4.5% of Cathay General Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.8% of shares of all “Banks” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Cathay General Bancorp has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cathay General Bancorp’s peers have a beta of 0.61, suggesting that their average stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Cathay General Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Cathay General Bancorp pays out 28.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Banks” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.3% and pay out 29.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Cathay General Bancorp and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cathay General Bancorp	$1.38 billion	$315.12 million	11.84
Cathay General Bancorp Competitors	$222.41 billion	$2.42 billion	20.29

Cathay General Bancorp’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Cathay General Bancorp. Cathay General Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Cathay General Bancorp peers beat Cathay General Bancorp on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

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. 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.