Ascentis Independent Advisors Acquires New Holdings in Cathay General Bancorp $CATY

Ascentis Independent Advisors acquired a new position in Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 30,815 shares of the bank's stock, valued at approximately $1,536,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CATY. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,685,203 shares of the bank's stock worth $81,547,000 after purchasing an additional 105,484 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Cathay General Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth about $41,140,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 669,527 shares of the bank's stock worth $32,398,000 after purchasing an additional 48,034 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 580,038 shares of the bank's stock valued at $28,068,000 after buying an additional 67,898 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1,274,076.3% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 484,187 shares of the bank's stock valued at $23,430,000 after buying an additional 484,149 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.01% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CATY has been the topic of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Zacks Research raised Cathay General Bancorp from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cathay General Bancorp currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $51.75.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Up 0.4%

NASDAQ CATY opened at $62.55 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $53.56. The stock has a market cap of $4.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.90 and a beta of 0.86. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12-month low of $43.65 and a 12-month high of $63.72. 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 - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $213.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.26 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.37% and a net margin of 23.79%.The firm's revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 28th were issued a $0.38 dividend. 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 2.4%. Cathay General Bancorp's dividend payout ratio is currently 31.34%.

Cathay General Bancorp announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase 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 purchase 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 shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Cathay General Bancorp

In related news, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was 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 $15,780,197.16. The trade was a 6.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP May K. Chan sold 558 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 4.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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