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

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) released its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 13.89% and a net margin of 27.02%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.32 earnings per share.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ CATY traded up $0.69 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $36.69. The stock had a trading volume of 329,447 shares, compared to its average volume of 353,276. Cathay General Bancorp has a 52-week low of $27.24 and a 52-week high of $45.72. The firm has a market cap of $2.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.55 and a beta of 1.12. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $38.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 11th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 28th were issued a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 27th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. Cathay General Bancorp’s payout ratio is 27.98%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on CATY shares. Truist Financial dropped 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. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cathay General Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Vice Chairman Anthony M. Tang sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.45, for a total transaction of $304,150.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 204,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,885,525. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 4.76% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.