Cathay General Bancorp $CATY Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc cut its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) by 5.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 167,048 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 9,418 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Cathay General Bancorp were worth $8,083,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 3.5% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,579,719 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $75,842,000 after purchasing an additional 53,621 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1,274,076.3% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 484,187 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $23,430,000 after purchasing an additional 484,149 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 375.1% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 420,509 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $20,189,000 after purchasing an additional 331,997 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 25.0% in the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 386,291 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $18,546,000 after purchasing an additional 77,228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 8.8% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 305,043 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $14,645,000 after purchasing an additional 24,615 shares during the last quarter. 75.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.33, for a total value of $1,146,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider 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. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Chang Liu sold 4,836 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 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 position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 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 Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CATY opened at $58.22 on Friday. 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 company has a market cap of $3.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.00 and a beta of 0.86. Cathay General Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $42.01 and a fifty-two week high of $58.68. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $54.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $51.76.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. Analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Cathay General Bancorp declared that its Board of Directors has approved 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 an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on CATY. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased 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 research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.75.

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.