New York State Teachers Retirement System Sells 18,715 Shares of Cathay General Bancorp $CATY

New York State Teachers Retirement System decreased its position in Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) by 15.6% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 101,585 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 18,715 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Cathay General Bancorp were worth $5,065,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,685,203 shares of the bank’s stock worth $81,547,000 after purchasing an additional 105,484 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at $41,140,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 669,527 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,398,000 after purchasing an additional 48,034 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 580,038 shares of the bank’s stock worth $28,068,000 after purchasing an additional 67,898 shares during the period. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 1,274,076.3% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 484,187 shares of the bank’s stock worth $23,430,000 after buying an additional 484,149 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CATY has been the topic of several analyst reports. Zacks Research raised shares of Cathay General Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted 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. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cathay General Bancorp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.75.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock opened at $61.46 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.67 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $58.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $53.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Cathay General Bancorp has a 1-year low of $43.65 and a 1-year high of $63.72.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $213.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $211.26 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 23.79% and a return on equity of 11.37%. Cathay General Bancorp’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 28th were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 28th. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.34%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Cathay General Bancorp

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,780,197.16. This represents a 6.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP May K. Chan sold 558 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total value of $31,248.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 2,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,808. This trade represents a 17.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 4.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cathay General Bancorp 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.