21,427 Shares in Cathay General Bancorp $CATY Purchased by AlphaQuest LLC

AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new position in Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 21,427 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $976,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CATY. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,856,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the first quarter valued at approximately $23,188,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 3.8% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,970,173 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $127,807,000 after purchasing an additional 108,672 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 46.4% during the first quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 259,783 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $11,178,000 after purchasing an additional 82,374 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the first quarter valued at approximately $3,336,000. 75.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CATY has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a report on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. DA Davidson increased their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Cathay General Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 11th. Finally, Stephens cut shares of Cathay General Bancorp from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $50.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, August 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cathay General Bancorp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $50.60.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock opened at $46.94 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $48.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $45.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.24 billion, a PE ratio of 10.84 and a beta of 0.94. Cathay General Bancorp has a 1-year low of $36.06 and a 1-year high of $55.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 21st. The bank reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.15 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $210.61 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $202.71 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 10.60% and a net margin of 22.26%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.94 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 28th were given a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 28th. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.41%.

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.