Cathay General Bancorp to Post FY2025 Earnings of $4.25 Per Share, Wedbush Forecasts (NASDAQ:CATY)

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) – Equities researchers at Wedbush cut their FY2025 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a report issued on Tuesday, April 23rd. Wedbush analyst D. Chiaverini now expects that the bank will earn $4.25 per share for the year, down from their prior forecast of $4.85. Wedbush currently has a “Outperform” rating and a $44.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Cathay General Bancorp’s current full-year earnings is $3.94 per share.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $339.25 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $188.85 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 24.41% and a return on equity of 13.02%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.32 earnings per share.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on CATY. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $46.00 to $41.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Truist Financial cut their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com cut 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 issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.00.

Cathay General Bancorp Stock Performance

CATY stock opened at $35.04 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.75 and a beta of 1.12. Cathay General Bancorp has a 1 year low of $27.24 and a 1 year high of $45.72. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $37.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.79.

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 paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.88%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 27th. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.09%.

Insider Activity at Cathay General Bancorp

In related news, Vice Chairman Anthony M. Tang sold 7,000 shares of Cathay General Bancorp 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 204,500 shares in the company, valued at $8,885,525. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,254,816 shares of the bank’s stock worth $367,917,000 after acquiring an additional 196,146 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,850,356 shares of the bank’s stock worth $171,613,000 after acquiring an additional 150,331 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,053,405 shares of the bank’s stock worth $91,520,000 after acquiring an additional 25,421 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 4.8% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,654,350 shares of the bank’s stock worth $57,505,000 after acquiring an additional 75,749 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 8.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,540,402 shares of the bank’s stock worth $53,543,000 after acquiring an additional 124,851 shares in the last quarter. 75.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.