Insider Selling: Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Director Sells $62,080.00 in Stock

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Director Richard Sun sold 1,000 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.08, for a total value of $62,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $198,656. The trade was a 23.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Richard Sun also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, August 10th, Richard Sun sold 3,000 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.09, for a total value of $189,270.00.
• On Thursday, July 30th, Richard Sun sold 5,000 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.31, for a total transaction of $316,550.00.
• On Wednesday, July 29th, Richard Sun sold 20,000 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.31, for a total transaction of $1,266,200.00.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

Cathay General Bancorp stock opened at $61.87 on Friday. Cathay General Bancorp has a 52-week low of $44.57 and a 52-week high of $65.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $62.60 and its 200 day moving average is $56.87. The company has a market cap of $4.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.08 and a beta of 0.86.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.02. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 24.66% and a return on equity of 11.71%. The business had revenue of $221.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $218.28 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.10 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 13.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 28th will be issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 28th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Cathay General Bancorp’s payout ratio is 29.69%.

Institutional Trading of Cathay General Bancorp

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Cathay General Bancorp in the second quarter worth approximately $604,644,000. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 6,522.1% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 4,520,125 shares of the bank’s stock worth $280,203,000 after acquiring an additional 4,451,867 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,050,007 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $201,930,000 after purchasing an additional 17,444 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,685,203 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $81,547,000 after acquiring an additional 105,484 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth about $41,140,000. 75.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on CATY. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $49.50 to $53.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. DA Davidson raised their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $56.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Stephens boosted their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Cathay General Bancorp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.25.

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.