NFJ Investment Group LLC Makes New $5.55 Million Investment in Cathay General Bancorp $CATY

NFJ Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 114,683 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $5,550,000. NFJ Investment Group LLC owned approximately 0.17% of Cathay General Bancorp as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 101.8% during the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 781 shares of the bank’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 36.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 979 shares of the bank’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in Cathay General Bancorp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $48,000. Torren Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the 4th quarter valued at $76,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 319.7% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,704 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 1,298 shares in the last quarter. 75.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cathay General Bancorp

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. 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. 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.75.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Up 1.8%

Cathay General Bancorp stock opened at $60.98 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $55.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12 month low of $42.01 and a 12 month high of $61.02. The stock has a market cap of $4.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.57 and a beta of 0.86.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $213.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $211.27 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. Cathay General Bancorp’s revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, April 23rd that authorizes the company to repurchase $150,000.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the bank to buy up to 4,164,630.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

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

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.