Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.04 EPS

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday. The bank reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.02 by ($0.04), Yahoo Finance reports. The company had revenue of $339.25 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $188.85 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 13.89% and a net margin of 27.02%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.32 earnings per share.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Down 4.7 %

Shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock opened at $34.89 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.84. The company has a market cap of $2.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.18 and a beta of 1.12. Cathay General Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $27.24 and a fifty-two week high of $45.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 28th were given a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 27th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.90%. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.98%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Vice Chairman Anthony M. Tang sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.45, for a total transaction of $304,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 204,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,885,525. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.