Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Reaches New 12-Month High - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Cathay General Bancorp hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday, trading as high as $62.43 and last changing hands near $61.83.
• Recent analyst moves were mixed: Zacks upgraded the stock to strong-buy, while Piper Sandler kept an underweight rating; the current consensus remains Hold with a $51.75 average price target.
• The bank posted solid fundamentals, including Q1 earnings of $1.29 per share versus $1.19 expected, a 14.4% year-over-year revenue increase, and a quarterly dividend of $0.38 per share.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY - Get Free Report)'s share price hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $62.43 and last traded at $61.83, with a volume of 499745 shares. The stock had previously closed at $62.05.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Cathay General Bancorp from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted 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 report on Thursday, April 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $51.75.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.75 and a beta of 0.86. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $57.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $53.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $213.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $211.26 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.37% and a net margin of 23.79%.Cathay General Bancorp's quarterly revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.41 EPS for the current year.

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 28th were issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 28th. Cathay General Bancorp's payout ratio is 31.34%.

Cathay General Bancorp announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock 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 a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Chang Liu sold 4,836 shares of Cathay General Bancorp 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 127,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,435,686.65. The trade was a 3.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the company's 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 directly owned 275,252 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,780,197.16. The trade was a 6.77% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 25,394 shares of company stock worth $1,421,341. 4.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 8,068 shares of the bank's stock worth $402,000 after buying an additional 237 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 35.4% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 351,195 shares of the bank's stock valued at $17,511,000 after buying an additional 91,820 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 13.6% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 12,305 shares of the bank's stock valued at $614,000 after buying an additional 1,472 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 12.1% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 68,258 shares of the bank's stock valued at $3,403,000 after acquiring an additional 7,361 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 290.0% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 20,810 shares of the bank's stock valued at $1,039,000 after acquiring an additional 15,474 shares during the period. 75.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

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