GW&K Investment Management LLC Has $29.09 Million Stake in Cathay General Bancorp $CATY

GW&K Investment Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 601,183 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 11,747 shares during the quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.88% of Cathay General Bancorp worth $29,092,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. ProShare Advisors LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised 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 acquiring an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 12,036 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $628,000 after acquiring an additional 348 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 101.8% in the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 781 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,227 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $299,000 after acquiring an additional 427 shares in the last quarter. 75.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.75.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CATY opened at $59.49 on Thursday. 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 business’s 50 day moving average is $55.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.08. The company has a market cap of $3.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.27 and a beta of 0.86. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12 month low of $42.01 and a 12 month high of $60.08.

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

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 28th were given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 28th. Cathay General Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 31.34%.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, SVP May K. Chan sold 558 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total value of $31,248.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 2,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,808. The trade was a 17.16% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Chang Liu sold 4,836 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total value of $243,492.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 127,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,435,686.65. This represents a 3.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 25,394 shares of company stock valued at $1,421,341 in the last three months. Company insiders own 4.53% of the company’s stock.

Cathay General Bancorp 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.