Convergence Investment Partners LLC Acquires New Position in Cathay General Bancorp $CATY

Key Points

• Convergence Investment Partners LLC opened a new position in Cathay General Bancorp, buying 31,093 shares worth about $1.5 million in the fourth quarter.
• Insider selling has been notable: Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares, and insiders sold a total of 25,394 shares over the past 90 days.
• Cathay General Bancorp recently beat earnings estimates with Q1 EPS of $1.29 versus $1.19 expected, and the board also initiated a share repurchase plan; analysts currently rate the stock Hold on average.

Convergence Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 31,093 shares of the bank's stock, valued at approximately $1,505,000.

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

Insider Transactions at Cathay General Bancorp

In other news, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of Cathay General Bancorp 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 $15,780,197.16. The trade was a 6.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP May K. Chan sold 558 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $31,248.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 2,693 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $150,808. This trade represents a 17.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 25,394 shares of company stock worth $1,421,341 over the last ninety days. 4.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CATY has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler lifted 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 report on Monday, April 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $52.00.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CATY opened at $55.61 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.73 billion, a PE ratio of 11.47 and a beta of 0.87. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12 month low of $41.83 and a 12 month high of $58.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $50.63.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $213.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.27 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 23.79% and a return on equity of 11.37%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Cathay General Bancorp 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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