Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Vice Chairman Sells $1,146,600.00 in Stock

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.33, for a total value of $1,146,600.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 275,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,780,197.16. This represents a 6.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of CATY traded down $0.33 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $56.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 408,301 shares, compared to its average volume of 457,113. The business has a fifty day moving average of $51.31 and a 200 day moving average of $50.16. The company has a market cap of $3.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.75 and a beta of 0.87. Cathay General Bancorp has a 1 year low of $41.83 and a 1 year high of $58.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.10. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.37% and a net margin of 23.79%.The company had revenue of $213.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.27 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 26th were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. This is an increase from Cathay General Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 26th. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is 31.34%.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CATY. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 101.8% in the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 781 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 394 shares during the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 36.0% during the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 979 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 259 shares during the period. Danske Bank A S bought a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the third quarter worth about $48,000. Torren Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth about $76,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth about $80,000. 75.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on CATY. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.00.

Cathay General Bancorp Company Profile

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.