Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 2,140,000 shares, an increase of 16.3% from the February 13th total of 1,840,000 shares. Approximately 3.2% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 358,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.0 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,230,722 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $201,426,000 after acquiring an additional 12,684 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,861,501 shares of the bank’s stock worth $136,236,000 after purchasing an additional 102,724 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 1.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,713,650 shares of the bank’s stock worth $73,615,000 after purchasing an additional 20,840 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,519,442 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $72,341,000 after buying an additional 85,963 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,471,066 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $70,037,000 after buying an additional 72,532 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CATY has been the topic of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $43.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $56.00 to $55.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Stephens cut their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $60.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cathay General Bancorp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.80.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of CATY opened at $44.07 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.10 billion, a PE ratio of 11.13 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s fifty day moving average is $46.24 and its 200 day moving average is $46.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. Cathay General Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $33.88 and a fifty-two week high of $55.29.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The bank reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.02. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 20.57% and a return on equity of 10.70%. Sell-side analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th were issued a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 27th. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.34%.

Cathay General Bancorp Company 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.