Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.34

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 15th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.34 per share by the bank on Monday, December 9th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.63%.

Cathay General Bancorp has increased its dividend by an average of 3.1% annually over the last three years. Cathay General Bancorp has a dividend payout ratio of 32.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Cathay General Bancorp to earn $4.20 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.4%.

Cathay General Bancorp Trading Up 0.3 %

CATY traded up $0.14 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $51.78. 302,827 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 327,465. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $44.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.69 billion, a PE ratio of 13.01 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Cathay General Bancorp has a 52-week low of $33.88 and a 52-week high of $54.07.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by ($0.01). Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.30% and a net margin of 20.57%. The company had revenue of $359.86 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $182.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.87, for a total value of $2,114,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 295,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,609,973.24. This trade represents a 11.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.00, for a total transaction of $42,300.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,359 shares in the company, valued at approximately $157,873. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 60,590 shares of company stock worth $3,055,488. Corporate insiders own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CATY. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Truist Financial upped their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Cathay General Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.00.

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.