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

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 16th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 29th will be paid a dividend of 0.34 per share by the bank on Monday, December 11th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 28th.

Cathay General Bancorp has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.1% per year over the last three years. Cathay General Bancorp has a dividend payout ratio of 30.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Cathay General Bancorp to earn $4.45 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 30.6%.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

NASDAQ:CATY opened at $37.37 on Friday. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12 month low of $27.24 and a 12 month high of $46.78. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $35.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $34.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm has a market cap of $2.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.39 and a beta of 1.15.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 23rd. The bank reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.01. Cathay General Bancorp had a return on equity of 14.40% and a net margin of 30.02%. The company had revenue of $193.48 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.04 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.35 EPS. Cathay General Bancorp’s quarterly revenue was down 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 4.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Cathay General Bancorp

In related news, EVP Kim R. Bingham sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.42, for a total value of $224,520.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 41,849 shares in the company, valued at $1,565,989.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 4.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Cathay General Bancorp by 3.1% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,016,193 shares of the bank’s stock worth $290,231,000 after purchasing an additional 267,075 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 9.4% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,708,830 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $165,970,000 after acquiring an additional 317,721 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,031,881 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $82,880,000 after acquiring an additional 153,790 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 1.6% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,441,875 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $49,774,000 after acquiring an additional 22,981 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Cathay General Bancorp by 4.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,083,447 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $48,484,000 after acquiring an additional 45,467 shares in the last quarter. 69.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Wedbush cut their price objective on Cathay General Bancorp from $42.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 24th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 25th. DA Davidson upped their price target on Cathay General Bancorp from $34.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered Cathay General Bancorp from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $31.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cathay General Bancorp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.83.

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.