LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Cathay General Bancorp (CATY) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter net income of $70.9 million.

The bank, based in Los Angeles, said it had earnings of 89 cents per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 77 cents per share.

The holding company for Cathay Bank posted revenue of $179 million in the period. Its revenue net of interest expense was $151.3 million, which fell short of Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $151.4 million.

For the year, the company reported profit of $228.9 million, or $2.87 per share. Revenue was reported as $594.9 million.

Cathay shares have climbed slightly more than 8% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $34.87, a fall of roughly 5% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CATY at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CATY

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