LSV Asset Management Has $31.40 Million Position in Cathay General Bancorp $CATY

Key Points

• LSV Asset Management trimmed its Cathay General Bancorp stake by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, but still held 648,900 shares valued at about $31.4 million at quarter-end.
• Cathay General Bancorp posted solid quarterly results, with earnings of $1.29 per share beating expectations and revenue rising 14.4% year over year to $213.2 million.
• The bank is returning cash to shareholders through a quarterly dividend of $0.38 per share and a newly authorized share repurchase program, while analysts currently rate the stock a consensus Hold with a $51.75 average price target.

LSV Asset Management lowered its stake in Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY - Free Report) by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 648,900 shares of the bank's stock after selling 34,803 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management owned 0.95% of Cathay General Bancorp worth $31,400,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 36.0% in the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 979 shares of the bank's stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. Danske Bank A S acquired a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp in the third quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Torren Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $76,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 319.7% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,704 shares of the bank's stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 1,298 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.01% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CATY shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised 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. Piper Sandler raised 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. One 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $51.75.

Insider Transactions at Cathay General Bancorp

In other news, SVP May K. Chan sold 558 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $31,248.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 2,693 shares of the company's stock, valued at $150,808. This trade represents a 17.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 275,252 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,780,197.16. This represents a 6.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 25,394 shares of company stock valued at $1,421,341 over the last three months. 4.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of CATY stock opened at $57.27 on Monday. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $52.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.04. The stock has a market cap of $3.84 billion, a PE ratio of 11.81 and a beta of 0.87. Cathay General Bancorp has a 52-week low of $41.83 and a 52-week high of $58.00. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $213.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $211.27 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 23.79% and a return on equity of 11.37%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 28th will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 28th. Cathay General Bancorp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.34%.

Cathay General Bancorp declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, April 23rd that permits the company to buyback $150,000.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the bank to repurchase up to 4,164,630.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is 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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