Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Issues Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.04 EPS

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) released its quarterly earnings data on Monday. The bank reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by ($0.04), Yahoo Finance reports. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 24.41% and a return on equity of 13.16%. The company had revenue of $339.25 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $188.85 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.32 EPS.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock opened at $35.53 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.86 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.81. Cathay General Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $27.24 and a fifty-two week high of $45.72.

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 28th were issued a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 27th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.83%. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.09%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Vice Chairman Anthony M. Tang sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.45, for a total value of $304,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 204,500 shares in the company, valued at $8,885,525. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $46.00 to $41.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $44.00 price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a research report on Tuesday. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $46.00 to $40.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Cathay General Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.40.

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.