Piper Jaffray Upgrades Cathay General Bancorp (CATY) to Overweight

Piper Jaffray upgraded Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ: CATY) from Neutral to Overweight with a price target of $43.00 (from $41.00).

Analyst Matt Clark comments "We upgrade CATY to OW (from N) partly based on valuation & our view that consensus is too low. We also believe CATY has good earnings visibility with margin expansion from funding cost relief, operating leverage as cost savings are realized from its pending acquisition & more active capital management post close. Coming off of 4Q results, we raise our estimates to reflect a larger balance sheet & more expense relief relative to our prior expectations. Our $43 target (from $41) reflects 15.5x (from 16.0x for China discount) our 2018E EPS plus $2 of excess capital vs. peers at 16.4x despite a stronger profitability profile."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Cathay General Bancorp click here. For more ratings news on Cathay General Bancorp click here.

Shares of Cathay General Bancorp closed at $36.39 yesterday.

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