153,091 Shares in Cathay General Bancorp $CATY Acquired by Hsbc Holdings PLC

Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 153,091 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $7,426,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 158.1% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,809 shares of the bank’s stock worth $88,000 after purchasing an additional 1,108 shares during the period. DGS Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the 4th quarter valued at $550,000. Invesco Ltd. increased 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 buying an additional 105,484 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 35,984 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,741,000 after buying an additional 1,159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 384.9% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 7,831 shares of the bank’s stock worth $379,000 after buying an additional 6,216 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP May K. Chan sold 558 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $31,248.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the company’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 value of $1,146,600.00. Following the completion of 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 4.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of CATY stock opened at $60.30 on Thursday. 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 company has a market cap of $4.04 billion, a PE ratio of 12.43 and a beta of 0.86. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.70. Cathay General Bancorp has a 52 week low of $43.65 and a 52 week high of $63.72.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $211.26 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.41 EPS for the current year.

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

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CATY has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded Cathay General Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a research note on Monday. 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 research note on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.75.

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.