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

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 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 increased its dividend by an average of 3.1% per year 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 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 %

Shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock opened at $51.78 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Cathay General Bancorp has a twelve month low of $33.88 and a twelve month high of $54.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.69 billion, a PE ratio of 13.04 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $45.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.26.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CATY has been the topic of several research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Cathay General Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Wedbush upped their price target 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. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. One investment 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. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cathay General Bancorp

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, Vice Chairman Peter Wu sold 40,000 shares of Cathay General Bancorp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.87, for a total value of $2,114,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 295,252 shares in the company, valued at $15,609,973.24. The trade was a 11.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Dunson K. Cheng sold 12,401 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.79, for a total value of $555,440.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 149,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,699,061.14. This trade represents a 7.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 60,590 shares of company stock worth $3,055,488 in the last ninety days. 4.76% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.