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

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) saw a significant increase in short interest during 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. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 358,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.0 days. Currently, 3.2% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,230,722 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $201,426,000 after purchasing an additional 12,684 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,861,501 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $136,236,000 after purchasing an additional 102,724 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings 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 valued at $73,615,000 after purchasing an additional 20,840 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,519,442 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $72,341,000 after purchasing an additional 85,963 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,471,066 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $70,037,000 after purchasing an additional 72,532 shares during the period. 75.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CATY. Stephens cut their price objective 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on 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, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $43.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cathay General Bancorp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.80.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CATY traded up $0.10 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $43.83. 60,161 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 341,232. Cathay General Bancorp has a one year low of $33.88 and a one year high of $55.29. The stock has a market cap of $3.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.07 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $46.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $46.72.

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

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th were paid a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.10%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 27th. Cathay General Bancorp’s payout ratio 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.