Yahoo Finance Be Sure To Check Out Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Before It Goes Ex-Dividend
Some investors rely on dividends for growing their wealth, and if you're one of those dividend sleuths, you might be intrigued to know that Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) is about to go ex-dividend in just three days. Investors can purchase shares before the 31st of August in order to be eligible for this dividend, which will be paid on the 11th of September.
Cathay General Bancorp's next dividend payment will be US$0.31 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$1.24 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Cathay General Bancorp stock has a trailing yield of around 4.9% on the current share price of $25.09. We love seeing companies pay a dividend, but it's also important to be sure that laying the golden eggs isn't going to kill our golden goose! So we need to investigate whether Cathay General Bancorp can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
View our latest analysis for Cathay General Bancorp
Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. Fortunately Cathay General Bancorp's payout ratio is modest, at just 41% of profit.
Companies that pay out less in dividends than they earn in profits generally have more sustainable dividends. The lower the payout ratio, the more wiggle room the business has before it could be forced to cut the dividend.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. For this reason, we're glad to see Cathay General Bancorp's earnings per share have risen 12% per annum over the last five years.
The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. Cathay General Bancorp has delivered 41% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years. Both per-share earnings and dividends have both been growing rapidly in recent times, which is great to see.
Final Takeaway
Should investors buy Cathay General Bancorp for the upcoming dividend? Typically, companies that are growing rapidly and paying out a low fraction of earnings are keeping the profits for reinvestment in the business. Perhaps even more importantly - this can sometimes signal management is focused on the long term future of the business. Overall, Cathay General Bancorp looks like a promising dividend stock in this analysis, and we think it would be worth investigating further.
Ever wonder what the future holds for Cathay General Bancorp? See what the six analysts we track are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow
A common investment mistake is buying the first interesting stock you see. Here you can find a list of promising dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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