Waverly Advisors LLC Takes $6.38 Million Position in Cathay General Bancorp $CATY

Waverly Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 127,850 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $6,375,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CATY. Danske Bank A S bought a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp in the third quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 55.8% during the 4th quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,525 shares of the bank’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 546 shares during the last quarter. Torren Management LLC bought a new position in Cathay General Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $76,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 319.7% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,704 shares of the bank’s stock worth $78,000 after purchasing an additional 1,298 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $80,000. 75.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.33, for a total transaction of $1,146,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 275,252 shares in the company, valued at $15,780,197.16. The trade was a 6.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 4.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of CATY stock opened at $63.55 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $4.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.41 and a beta of 0.86. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $54.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.04. Cathay General Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $43.65 and a fifty-two week high of $63.91.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $221.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $218.28 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.71% and a net margin of 24.66%.The company’s revenue was up 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.10 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Cathay General Bancorp announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, April 23rd that authorizes the company to repurchase $150,000.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the bank to purchase up to 4,164,630.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 28th were paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 28th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Cathay General Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 29.69%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on CATY shares. Stephens upped their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $49.50 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday. DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $56.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Cathay General Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.25.

About Cathay General Bancorp

Cathay General Bancorp is a bank holding company headquartered in Los Angeles, California, trading on NASDAQ under the symbol CATY. Its principal subsidiary, Cathay Bank, provides a full suite of financial services to commercial, institutional and retail clients. As a community-focused institution, the company emphasizes relationship banking and tailored solutions for businesses and individuals.

Founded in 1962 by a group of Chinese American entrepreneurs, Cathay has expanded from a single branch operation in downtown Los Angeles into one of the largest Asian-American banks in the United States.