Chang Liu Sells 4,836 Shares of Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Stock

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) 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 trade represents a 3.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Up 2.7%

Cathay General Bancorp stock opened at $52.90 on Thursday. 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $50.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $49.34. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12 month low of $36.60 and a 12 month high of $54.99. The company has a market capitalization of $3.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.65 and a beta of 0.82.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 22nd. The bank reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $222.83 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.76 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 10.89% and a net margin of 22.76%.During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.12 earnings per share. As a group, equities 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 26th. This is an increase 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 2.9%. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.48%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a report on Monday, December 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.50.

Institutional Trading of Cathay General Bancorp

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CATY. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in 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 acquiring an additional 394 shares during the last quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC purchased a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp during the third quarter valued at $43,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased 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 valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 259 shares during the last quarter. Danske Bank A S purchased a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp during the third quarter valued at $48,000. Finally, Torren Management LLC purchased a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at $76,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

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.