Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.02 EPS

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) announced its earnings results on Wednesday. The bank reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.02, Zacks reports. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.30% and a net margin of 20.57%.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Down 3.9 %

Shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock opened at $46.89 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12-month low of $33.88 and a 12-month high of $55.29. The company has a market capitalization of $3.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.81 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $49.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $45.61.

Cathay General Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 27th were paid a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 27th. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.26%.

Insider Activity

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.00, for a total transaction of $42,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,359 shares in the company, valued at $157,873. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 7,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.05, for a total value of $342,947.45. Following the sale, the insider now owns 347,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,371,659.15. The trade was a 2.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 48,189 shares of company stock worth $2,500,047. 4.76% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CATY has been the subject of a number of research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $56.00 to $55.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Stephens cut their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $60.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.40.

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.