Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Board Announces Stock Repurchase Program

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $150,000.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the bank to repurchase up to 4,164,630.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CATY has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.25.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Up 2.7%

NASDAQ CATY traded up $1.47 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $55.25. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 424,735 shares, compared to its average volume of 319,773. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $50.93 and a 200 day moving average of $49.76. Cathay General Bancorp has a twelve month low of $40.96 and a twelve month high of $55.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.39 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.10. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 23.79% and a return on equity of 11.45%. The business had revenue of $213.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.27 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. Cathay General Bancorp’s revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 26th were issued a $0.38 dividend. This is an increase from Cathay General Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 26th. Cathay General Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.48%.

Insider Activity at Cathay General Bancorp

In related news, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.23, for a total value of $50,230.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 2,000 shares in the company, valued at $100,460. This represents a 33.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Chang Liu sold 4,836 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total transaction of $243,492.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 127,819 shares in the company, valued at $6,435,686.65. This represents a 3.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 4.85% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Cathay General Bancorp

Here are the key news stories impacting Cathay General Bancorp this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 results beat consensus — EPS $1.29 vs. $1.19 expected and revenue $213.2M (+14.4% YoY); margins and ROE remained healthy, supporting the upbeat investor reaction. Cathay General (CATY) Q1 Earnings and Revenues Surpass Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised its price target from $55 to $58 (maintaining a “market perform” rating), signaling modest analyst confidence and incremental upside in the shares. Benzinga
• Neutral Sentiment: Full earnings call transcript and management commentary are available — useful for assessing guidance, loan/ deposit trends and NIM commentary but they contain no dramatic guidance shift. Cathay General Bancorp (CATY) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Slide deck and official press release from the Q1 release are posted for deeper detail on results, trends and KPIs—worth reviewing for asset quality and margin drivers. Q1 Press Release / Slide Deck
• Neutral Sentiment: Some outlets used different framing of the quarter (e.g., “reports lower Q1 earnings” headlines) — this appears to be semantic or metric-specific rather than a contradiction of the EPS beat; investors should check the release for the underlying metrics. TipRanks

Cathay General Bancorp Company Profile

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.