Swiss National Bank Sells 700 Shares of Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY)

Swiss National Bank reduced its position in Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 135,100 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 700 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned 0.19% of Cathay General Bancorp worth $5,803,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. raised its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 39.3% in the third quarter. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. now owns 256,404 shares of the bank’s stock worth $11,013,000 after purchasing an additional 72,300 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC bought a new position in Cathay General Bancorp in the third quarter worth about $512,000. Royce & Associates LP raised its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 25.4% in the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 49,420 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,123,000 after purchasing an additional 10,022 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Cathay General Bancorp in the third quarter worth about $201,000. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP raised its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 11.7% in the third quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP now owns 6,108 shares of the bank’s stock worth $262,000 after purchasing an additional 639 shares in the last quarter. 75.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Cathay General Bancorp

In related news, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.00, for a total value of $42,300.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,359 shares in the company, valued at $157,873. This represents a 21.13 % 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, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 7,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.05, for a total value of $342,947.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 347,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,371,659.15. The trade was a 2.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 48,189 shares of company stock worth $2,500,047 over the last quarter. Insiders own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on CATY. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.00.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of CATY stock opened at $52.31 on Thursday. Cathay General Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $33.88 and a fifty-two week high of $55.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.18 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $46.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.10.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by ($0.01). Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.30% and a net margin of 20.57%. The business had revenue of $359.86 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $182.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.13 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cathay General Bancorp will post 3.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 27th will be given a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 27th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.60%. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 34.26%.

About Cathay General Bancorp

Cathay General Bancorp operates as the holding company for Cathay Bank that offers various commercial banking products and services to individuals, professionals, and small to medium-sized businesses in the United States. The company offers various deposit products, including passbook accounts, checking accounts, money market deposit accounts, certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, and public funds deposits.