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

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday. The bank reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.02 by ($0.04), Yahoo Finance reports. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 27.02% and a return on equity of 13.89%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.32 EPS.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ CATY opened at $36.62 on Tuesday. 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.83. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12-month low of $27.24 and a 12-month high of $45.72. The firm has a market cap of $2.66 billion, a PE ratio of 7.53 and a beta of 1.12.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, Vice Chairman Anthony M. Tang sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $8,885,525. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $46.00 to $40.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 1st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cathay General Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 6th. Two equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cathay General Bancorp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.20.

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.