Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Short Interest Up 16.3% in February

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in 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. Currently, 3.2% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 358,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.0 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CATY. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 23,486 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,118,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 31,770 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,513,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 63.5% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 850 shares of the bank’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 9,961 shares of the bank’s stock worth $474,000 after purchasing an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 10,293 shares of the bank’s stock worth $490,000 after purchasing an additional 544 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stephens decreased their price objective on shares of 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. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $43.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $56.00 to $55.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $50.80.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

NASDAQ CATY opened at $43.14 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. Cathay General Bancorp has a 1 year low of $33.88 and a 1 year high of $55.29. The company has a market capitalization of $3.03 billion, a PE ratio of 10.89 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a fifty day moving average of $46.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $46.67.

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

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th were paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.15%. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.34%.

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.