Cibc World Market Inc. Buys New Position in Cathay General Bancorp $CATY

Cibc World Market Inc. bought a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 131,335 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $6,355,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CATY. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Cathay General Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,140,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1,274,076.3% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 484,187 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $23,430,000 after acquiring an additional 484,149 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 375.1% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 420,509 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $20,189,000 after acquiring an additional 331,997 shares during the last quarter. HRT Financial LP acquired a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,987,000. Finally, Dark Forest Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,910,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on CATY. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Chang Liu sold 4,836 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total transaction of $243,492.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 127,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,435,686.65. This represents a 3.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owned 275,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,780,197.16. This trade represents a 6.77% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 25,394 shares of company stock valued at $1,421,341. 4.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

CATY opened at $58.22 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $54.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $51.81. The company has a market cap of $3.90 billion, a PE ratio of 12.00 and a beta of 0.86. Cathay General Bancorp has a 1 year low of $42.01 and a 1 year high of $58.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $213.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.27 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 23.79% and a return on equity of 11.37%. The company’s revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 28th will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 28th. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is 31.34%.

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

Cathay General Bancorp Company Profile

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.