Amundi Trims Stake in Cathay General Bancorp $CATY

Amundi decreased its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) by 21.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 30,222 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 8,200 shares during the period. Amundi’s holdings in Cathay General Bancorp were worth $1,300,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CATY. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 310,246 shares of the bank’s stock worth $14,771,000 after acquiring an additional 14,121 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 23,486 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,118,000 after acquiring an additional 222 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 31,770 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,513,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 118.1% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 90,721 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,319,000 after acquiring an additional 49,129 shares during the period. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 39,635 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,887,000 after acquiring an additional 1,545 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CATY has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded Cathay General Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $53.00 price target on Cathay General Bancorp and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. DA Davidson upped their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Stephens downgraded Cathay General Bancorp from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $50.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cathay General Bancorp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.71.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

CATY stock opened at $49.13 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.87 and a beta of 1.00. Cathay General Bancorp has a 1 year low of $36.06 and a 1 year high of $55.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $47.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $44.72.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 10.39% and a net margin of 21.44%.The firm had revenue of $196.61 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $197.04 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Cathay General Bancorp declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, June 4th that authorizes the company to repurchase $150.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the bank to repurchase up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 28th were issued a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 28th. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.85%.

Cathay General Bancorp Profile

Cathay General Bancorp operates as the holding company for Cathay Bank that offers various commercial banking products and services to individuals, professionals, and small to medium-sized businesses in the United States. The company offers various deposit products, including passbook accounts, checking accounts, money market deposit accounts, certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, and public funds deposits.