Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Vice Chairman Peter Wu Sells 20,000 Shares of Stock

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 275,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,780,197.16. This trade represents a 6.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock opened at $56.99 on Friday. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12-month low of $41.83 and a 12-month high of $58.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.75 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 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 analyst estimates of $211.27 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Cathay General Bancorp Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 26th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. This is an increase from Cathay General Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Cathay General Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 31.34%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on CATY shares. Piper Sandler increased 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 increased their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cathay General Bancorp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 12,925 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. Access Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Access Investment Management LLC now owns 21,145 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,015,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 36.0% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co boosted its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 57,646 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,788,000 after purchasing an additional 301 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 19,703 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $946,000 after purchasing an additional 307 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

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.