How to buy Cathay General Bancorp stock | $32.19

Cathay General Bancorp is a banks-regional business based in the US. Cathay General Bancorp shares (CATY) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Cathay General Bancorp employs 1,219 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$530.3 million.

How to buy shares in Cathay General Bancorp

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Cathay General Bancorp. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: CATY. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Cathay General Bancorp reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$32.19, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Cathay General Bancorp, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Cathay General Bancorp. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

Cathay General Bancorp share price

Use our graph to track the performance of CATY stocks over time.

Cathay General Bancorp shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-12-27.

Latest market close	USD$32.19
52-week range	USD$16.9944 - USD$36.7666
50-day moving average	USD$29.7049
200-day moving average	USD$25.7214
Wall St. target price	USD$32
PE ratio	11.1702
Dividend yield	USD$1.24 (3.94%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$2.82

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Is it a good time to buy Cathay General Bancorp stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Cathay General Bancorp by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Cathay General Bancorp price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $32.19 from 2020-12-31

1 week (2021-01-15)	-12.03%
1 month (2020-12-23)	2.06%
3 months (2020-10-22)	32.03%
6 months (2020-07-22)	27.99%

1 year (2020-01-22)	-13.47%
2 years (2019-01-22)	-13.37%
3 years (2018-01-22)	45.12
5 years (2016-01-22)	22.26%

Is Cathay General Bancorp under- or over-valued?

Valuing Cathay General Bancorp stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Cathay General Bancorp's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Cathay General Bancorp's P/E ratio

Cathay General Bancorp's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 11x. In other words, Cathay General Bancorp shares trade at around 11x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Cathay General Bancorp's PEG ratio

Cathay General Bancorp's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.08. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Cathay General Bancorp's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Cathay General Bancorp financials

Revenue TTM	USD$530.3 million
Operating margin TTM	59.12%
Gross profit TTM	USD$620.9 million
Return on assets TTM	1.22%
Return on equity TTM	9.75%
Profit margin	42.5%
Book value	$29.811
Market capitalisation	USD$2.5 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Cathay General Bancorp shares

There are currently 1.3 million Cathay General Bancorp shares held short by investors – that's known as Cathay General Bancorp's "short interest". This figure is 0.6% up from 1.3 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Cathay General Bancorp shares can be evaluated.

Cathay General Bancorp's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Cathay General Bancorp's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Cathay General Bancorp shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Cathay General Bancorp shares traded daily (recently around 332513.33333333). Cathay General Bancorp's SIR currently stands at 4.05. In other words for every 100,000 Cathay General Bancorp shares traded daily on the market, roughly 4050 shares are currently held short.

However Cathay General Bancorp's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Cathay General Bancorp shares, or, against the total number of tradable Cathay General Bancorp shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Cathay General Bancorp's short interest could be expressed as 0.02% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Cathay General Bancorp shares in existence, roughly 20 shares are currently held short) or 0.0252% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Cathay General Bancorp shares, roughly 25 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Cathay General Bancorp.

Find out more about how you can short Cathay General Bancorp stock.

Cathay General Bancorp share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 43.97% of net profits

Recently Cathay General Bancorp has paid out, on average, around 43.97% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.94% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Cathay General Bancorp shareholders could enjoy a 3.94% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Cathay General Bancorp's case, that would currently equate to about $1.24 per share.

While Cathay General Bancorp's payout ratio might seem fairly standard, it's worth remembering that Cathay General Bancorp may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.

Cathay General Bancorp's most recent dividend payout was on 11 December 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 30 November 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Cathay General Bancorp's shares ever split?

Cathay General Bancorp's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 29 September 2004. So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Cathay General Bancorp shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 50% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Cathay General Bancorp shares which in turn could have impacted Cathay General Bancorp's share price.

Cathay General Bancorp share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Cathay General Bancorp's shares have ranged in value from as little as $16.9944 up to $36.7666. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while Cathay General Bancorp's is 1.5213. This would suggest that Cathay General Bancorp's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Cathay General Bancorp overview

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. It also provides loan products, such as commercial mortgage loans, commercial loans, small business administration loans, residential mortgage loans, real estate construction loans, and home equity lines of credit, as well as installment loans to individuals for automobile, household, and other consumer expenditures. In addition, the company offers trade financing, letter of credit, wire transfer, forward currency spot and forward contract, traveler's check, safe deposit, night deposit, social security payment deposit, collection, bank-by-mail, drive-up and walk-up window, automatic teller machine, Internet banking, and other customary bank services, as well as securities and insurance products. As of October 26, 2020, it operated 38 branches in California; 10 branches in New York; 3 branches in Illinois; 4 branches in Washington; 2 branches in Texas; and 1 each branch in Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, and Hong Kong, as well as 1 representative office in Beijing, Taipei, and Shanghai. The company was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Cathay General Bancorp is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 5.439% of Cathay General Bancorp shares are held by insiders and 72.617% by institutions.

• How many people work for Cathay General Bancorp?

  Latest data suggests 1,219 work at Cathay General Bancorp.

• When does the fiscal year end for Cathay General Bancorp?

  Cathay General Bancorp's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Cathay General Bancorp based?

  Cathay General Bancorp's address is: 777 North Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 90012

• What is Cathay General Bancorp's ISIN number?

  Cathay General Bancorp's international securities identification number is: US1491501045

• What is Cathay General Bancorp's CUSIP number?

  Cathay General Bancorp's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 149150104