Short Interest in Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Decreases By 31.1%

Key Points

• Short interest in Cathay General Bancorp fell 31.1% to 1,529,604 shares as of March 31, equal to about 2.4% of shares sold short and a short-interest ratio of 1.9 days.
• Insiders have been trimming positions: EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 1,000 shares and CEO Chang Liu sold 4,836 shares (under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan), leaving insiders with roughly 4.85% ownership.
• The bank beat quarterly expectations (EPS $1.33 vs. $1.20 estimate; revenue $222.8M vs. $211.8M) and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.38, annualized $1.52 (~2.8% yield).

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 1,529,604 shares, a decline of 31.1% from the March 15th total of 2,221,409 shares. Approximately 2.4% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 791,213 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $52.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.23, for a total value of $50,230.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 2,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $100,460. The trade was a 33.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Chang Liu sold 4,836 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total value of $243,492.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 127,819 shares in the company, valued at $6,435,686.65. This represents a 3.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 4.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CATY. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 101.8% during the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 781 shares of the bank's stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the third quarter valued at $43,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 36.0% during the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 979 shares of the bank's stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in Cathay General Bancorp in the third quarter valued at about $48,000. Finally, Torren Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth about $76,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.01% of the company's stock.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of CATY stock opened at $53.58 on Tuesday. Cathay General Bancorp has a 1-year low of $36.66 and a 1-year high of $54.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company has a market capitalization of $3.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.80 and a beta of 0.82. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $50.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $49.46.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 22nd. The bank reported $1.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.13. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 10.89% and a net margin of 22.76%.The business had revenue of $222.83 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.76 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.12 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 26th were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a positive change from Cathay General Bancorp's previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 26th. Cathay General Bancorp's dividend payout ratio is presently 33.48%.

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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