Norges Bank Takes $41.14 Million Position in Cathay General Bancorp $CATY

Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 850,180 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $41,140,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CATY. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 25.8% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 14,761 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $634,000 after purchasing an additional 3,030 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 20.0% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 40,456 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,708,000 after purchasing an additional 6,740 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1.9% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 40,395 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,738,000 after purchasing an additional 760 shares during the last quarter. Caxton Associates LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the first quarter valued at $316,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 5.1% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 183,090 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $7,878,000 after purchasing an additional 8,914 shares during the last quarter. 75.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CATY has been the subject of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on 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 raised their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.75.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CATY opened at $58.39 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The firm has a market cap of $3.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.04 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $55.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $51.90. Cathay General Bancorp has a 52 week low of $42.01 and a 52 week high of $59.10.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $213.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.27 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.37% and a net margin of 23.79%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. 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 Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio is currently 31.34%.

Cathay General Bancorp announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, April 23rd that allows the company to repurchase $150,000.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the bank to reacquire up to 4,164,630.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP May K. Chan sold 558 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 2,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,808. This represents a 17.16% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Chang Liu sold 4,836 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total value of $243,492.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 127,819 shares in the company, valued at $6,435,686.65. This trade represents a 3.65% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 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.

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.