Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) Announces Earnings Results

Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) released its earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.38 by ($0.01), Zacks reports. Esquire Financial had a return on equity of 19.53% and a net margin of 31.38%.

Esquire Financial Stock Down 3.2 %

NASDAQ:ESQ opened at $86.12 on Friday. Esquire Financial has a 52 week low of $44.45 and a 52 week high of $90.00. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $79.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $716.52 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.33 and a beta of 0.73.

Esquire Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. Esquire Financial’s payout ratio is 12.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Esquire Financial

In other news, Director Rena Nigam acquired 640 shares of Esquire Financial stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $77.50 per share, for a total transaction of $49,600.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 1,867 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $144,692.50. This trade represents a 52.16 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Melohn sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.15, for a total value of $237,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 3,683 shares in the company, valued at approximately $291,509.45. This represents a 44.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on ESQ. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Esquire Financial from $72.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Raymond James lowered Esquire Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $75.00 price target (up previously from $72.00) on shares of Esquire Financial in a research report on Friday, October 25th.

About Esquire Financial

Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Esquire Bank, National Association that provides commercial banking products and services to legal industry and small businesses, and commercial and retail customers in the United States. The company offers checking, savings, money market, and time deposits, as well as certificates of deposit.