Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Short Interest Up 5.5% in October

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) was the target of a large increase in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,300,000 shares, an increase of 5.5% from the September 30th total of 2,180,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 291,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.9 days. Approximately 3.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on CATY shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cathay General Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Wedbush increased their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cathay General Bancorp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.00.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Down 0.1 %

CATY opened at $45.93 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.31 billion, a PE ratio of 11.57 and a beta of 1.11. Cathay General Bancorp has a 1-year low of $33.88 and a 1-year high of $47.65. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $43.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.18.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $359.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $182.70 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 20.57% and a return on equity of 11.30%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.13 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cathay General Bancorp will post 3.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 29th were paid a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 29th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.96%. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.26%.

Insider Transactions at Cathay General Bancorp

In related news, Chairman Dunson K. Cheng sold 12,401 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.79, for a total transaction of $555,440.79. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 149,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,699,061.14. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Chairman Dunson K. Cheng sold 12,401 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.79, for a total transaction of $555,440.79. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 149,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,699,061.14. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 7,289 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.05, for a total transaction of $342,947.45. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 347,963 shares in the company, valued at $16,371,659.15. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,590 shares of company stock valued at $940,688 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,194,232 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $158,206,000 after purchasing an additional 176,215 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 19.8% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,262,970 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,639,000 after purchasing an additional 208,599 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 736,727 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $27,789,000 after purchasing an additional 28,968 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 181,928 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,979,000 after purchasing an additional 3,478 shares during the period. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 160,241 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,044,000 after purchasing an additional 11,324 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

About Cathay General Bancorp

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.