Geode Capital Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Cathay General Bancorp $CATY

Geode Capital Management LLC trimmed its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,724,741 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 15,030 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC owned 2.53% of Cathay General Bancorp worth $83,472,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 101.8% during the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 781 shares of the bank’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 36.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 979 shares of the bank’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. Danske Bank A S purchased a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the 3rd quarter worth about $48,000. Torren Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth about $76,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 319.7% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,704 shares of the bank’s stock worth $78,000 after acquiring an additional 1,298 shares in the last quarter. 75.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler increased 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 note on Monday, April 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.75.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock opened at $58.22 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.90 billion, a PE ratio of 12.00 and a beta of 0.86. Cathay General Bancorp has a twelve month low of $42.01 and a twelve month high of $58.68. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $54.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $51.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.10. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 23.79% and a return on equity of 11.37%. The firm had revenue of $213.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.27 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. Cathay General Bancorp’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 28th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.34%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, SVP May K. Chan sold 558 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total value of $31,248.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 2,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,808. This represents a 17.16% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.33, for a total transaction of $1,146,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 275,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,780,197.16. The trade was a 6.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 25,394 shares of company stock worth $1,421,341. 4.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.