NFJ Investment Group LLC Makes New $5.55 Million Investment in Cathay General Bancorp $CATY

NFJ Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 114,683 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $5,550,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CATY. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 101.8% during the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 781 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 394 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 36.0% during the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 979 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 259 shares during the period. Danske Bank A S bought a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp during the third quarter valued at about $48,000. Torren Management LLC bought a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at about $76,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 319.7% during the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,704 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 1,298 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CATY shares. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped 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 report on Thursday, April 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.75.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Up 1.8%

CATY stock opened at $60.98 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $55.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $52.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.57 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. Cathay General Bancorp has a 52-week low of $42.01 and a 52-week high of $61.02.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $213.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.27 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 23.79% and a return on equity of 11.37%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 28th were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 28th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.34%.

Cathay General Bancorp declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, April 23rd that authorizes the company to buyback $150,000.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the bank to reacquire up to 4,164,630.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP May K. Chan sold 558 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $31,248.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 2,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,808. This represents a 17.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Chang Liu sold 4,836 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total transaction of $243,492.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 127,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,435,686.65. This represents a 3.65% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 25,394 shares of company stock valued at $1,421,341. Insiders own 4.53% of the company’s stock.

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.