Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $53.85, but opened at $51.50. Cathay General Bancorp shares last traded at $51.50, with a volume of 312 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on CATY. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.00.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.56 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $46.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by ($0.01). Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.30% and a net margin of 20.57%. The business had revenue of $359.86 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $182.70 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.13 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Cathay General Bancorp will post 3.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 27th will be given a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 27th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.54%. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.26%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.00, for a total transaction of $42,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,359 shares in the company, valued at approximately $157,873. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.87, for a total value of $2,114,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 295,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,609,973.24. This trade represents a 11.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 48,189 shares of company stock worth $2,500,047 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cathay General Bancorp

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 4.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,194,232 shares of the bank’s stock worth $158,206,000 after acquiring an additional 176,215 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 3.3% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,758,777 shares of the bank’s stock worth $118,489,000 after buying an additional 87,847 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,713,650 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $73,615,000 after purchasing an additional 20,840 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 19.8% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,262,970 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,639,000 after purchasing an additional 208,599 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 4.1% in the second quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 736,727 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $27,789,000 after buying an additional 28,968 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

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.