Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Plans $0.34 Quarterly Dividend

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

Cathay General Bancorp has raised its dividend by an average of 3.1% annually over the last three years. Cathay General Bancorp has a dividend payout ratio of 32.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 Price Performance

Shares of CATY opened at $51.78 on Friday. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12-month low of $33.88 and a 12-month high of $54.07. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $3.69 billion, a PE ratio of 13.04 and a beta of 1.10.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.94 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $359.86 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $182.70 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.13 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CATY. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their target price on 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 equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cathay General Bancorp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, Chairman Dunson K. Cheng sold 12,401 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.79, for a total value of $555,440.79. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 149,566 shares in the company, valued at $6,699,061.14. The trade was a 7.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now owns 295,252 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,609,973.24. The trade was a 11.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 60,590 shares of company stock worth $3,055,488. 4.76% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.