GW&K Investment Management LLC Sells 11,747 Shares of Cathay General Bancorp $CATY

GW&K Investment Management LLC cut its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 601,183 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 11,747 shares during the period. GW&K Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Cathay General Bancorp were worth $29,092,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 39.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 150,601 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $7,230,000 after purchasing an additional 42,868 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1,274,076.3% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 484,187 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $23,430,000 after purchasing an additional 484,149 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 8.8% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 305,043 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $14,645,000 after purchasing an additional 24,615 shares during the period. Convergence Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at $1,505,000. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. acquired a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at $6,355,000. 75.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of CATY stock opened at $59.49 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $55.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The firm has a market cap of $3.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.27 and a beta of 0.86. Cathay General Bancorp has a one year low of $42.01 and a one year high of $60.08.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $213.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.27 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.37% and a net margin of 23.79%.Cathay General Bancorp’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 28th were paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 28th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. Cathay General Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 31.34%.

Cathay General Bancorp declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, April 23rd that allows the company to repurchase $150,000.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the bank to buy up to 4,164,630.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CATY has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cathay General Bancorp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, SVP May K. Chan sold 558 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total value of $31,248.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 2,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,808. The trade was a 17.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 127,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,435,686.65. This represents a 3.65% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 25,394 shares of company stock valued at $1,421,341. 4.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.