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 $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.02, FiscalAI reports. The business had revenue of $221.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $218.28 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 23.79% and a return on equity of 11.37%.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of CATY traded down $0.70 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $61.36. The stock had a trading volume of 721,382 shares, compared to its average volume of 469,739. Cathay General Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $43.65 and a fifty-two week high of $63.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market cap of $4.11 billion, a PE ratio of 12.65 and a beta of 0.86. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $54.48.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 28th were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 28th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.34%.

Insider Activity at Cathay General Bancorp

In related news, SVP May K. Chan sold 558 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $31,248.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 2,693 shares in the company, valued at $150,808. This trade represents a 17.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.33, for a total transaction of $1,146,600.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 275,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,780,197.16. The trade was a 6.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 4.53% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 375.1% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 420,509 shares of the bank’s stock worth $20,189,000 after purchasing an additional 331,997 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,685,203 shares of the bank’s stock worth $81,547,000 after buying an additional 105,484 shares during the last quarter. HRT Financial LP bought a new position in Cathay General Bancorp during the 2nd quarter worth $3,987,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Cathay General Bancorp in the third quarter worth $3,910,000. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 674.4% in the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 93,282 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,478,000 after buying an additional 81,236 shares during the period. 75.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cathay General Bancorp declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, April 23rd that permits the company to buyback $150,000.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the bank to buy up to 4,164,630.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CATY has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Cathay General Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cathay General Bancorp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.75.

About Cathay General Bancorp

Cathay General Bancorp is a bank holding company headquartered in Los Angeles, California, trading on NASDAQ under the symbol CATY. Its principal subsidiary, Cathay Bank, provides a full suite of financial services to commercial, institutional and retail clients. As a community-focused institution, the company emphasizes relationship banking and tailored solutions for businesses and individuals.

Founded in 1962 by a group of Chinese American entrepreneurs, Cathay has expanded from a single branch operation in downtown Los Angeles into one of the largest Asian-American banks in the United States.