Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) to Post Q1 2025 Earnings of $0.98 Per Share, Wedbush Forecasts

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) – Research analysts at Wedbush cut their Q1 2025 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, September 24th. Wedbush analyst D. Chiaverini now forecasts that the bank will post earnings of $0.98 per share for the quarter, down from their prior estimate of $1.01. Wedbush currently has a “Outperform” rating and a $50.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Cathay General Bancorp’s current full-year earnings is $4.03 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for Cathay General Bancorp’s Q2 2025 earnings at $1.04 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $1.07 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $1.06 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $4.15 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $4.30 EPS.

CATY has been the topic of several other reports. StockNews.com upgraded Cathay General Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. One equities research analyst has 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 company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.50.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

Cathay General Bancorp stock opened at $42.35 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock has a market cap of $3.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.37 and a beta of 1.11. Cathay General Bancorp has a 52 week low of $32.08 and a 52 week high of $45.88.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $178.53 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $179.19 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.96% and a net margin of 22.08%. Cathay General Bancorp’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.28 earnings per share.

Cathay General Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 29th were paid a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 29th. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, Chairman Dunson K. Cheng sold 12,401 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.79, for a total transaction of $555,440.79. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 149,566 shares in the company, valued at $6,699,061.14. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Chairman Dunson K. Cheng sold 12,401 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.79, for a total transaction of $555,440.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 149,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,699,061.14. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.19, for a total transaction of $903,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 355,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,053,837.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 38,401 shares of company stock worth $1,728,581. 4.76% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cathay General Bancorp

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Access Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1.1% in the second quarter. Access Investment Management LLC now owns 20,520 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $774,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. Quarry LP boosted its position in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 76.3% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 765 shares of the bank’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 331 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 19,327 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $729,000 after purchasing an additional 360 shares during the period. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Cathay General Bancorp by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC now owns 22,334 shares of the bank’s stock worth $842,000 after acquiring an additional 417 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in Cathay General Bancorp by 16.6% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,675 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $139,000 after acquiring an additional 523 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.01% of the company’s stock.

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.