Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Reaches New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) shares hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $58.06 and last traded at $57.99, with a volume of 22720 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $57.25.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.75.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

The business’s 50-day moving average price is $53.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $51.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market cap of $3.89 billion, a PE ratio of 11.95 and a beta of 0.87.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.10. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 23.79% and a return on equity of 11.37%. The firm had revenue of $213.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.27 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 28th will be given a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 28th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Cathay General Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 31.34%.

Cathay General Bancorp declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, April 23rd that permits the company to repurchase $150,000.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the bank to reacquire up to 4,164,630.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, SVP May K. Chan sold 558 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $31,248.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 2,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,808. The trade was a 17.16% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider directly owned 275,252 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,780,197.16. This represents a 6.77% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 25,394 shares of company stock valued at $1,421,341. Insiders own 4.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cathay General Bancorp

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,050,007 shares of the bank’s stock worth $201,930,000 after purchasing an additional 17,444 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in 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 during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,140,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 669,527 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $32,398,000 after acquiring an additional 48,034 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 580,038 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $28,068,000 after acquiring an additional 67,898 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

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.