Esquire Financial’s (ESQ) “Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated their outperform rating on shares of Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) in a research note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $68.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $62.00.

Separately, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Esquire Financial from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Monday, April 29th.

Esquire Financial Trading Up 0.4 %

ESQ opened at $59.30 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $48.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $48.50. Esquire Financial has a 12-month low of $43.24 and a 12-month high of $59.56. The firm has a market cap of $491.60 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.75 and a beta of 0.72.

Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $29.25 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $29.04 million. Esquire Financial had a return on equity of 20.43% and a net margin of 31.36%. On average, research analysts forecast that Esquire Financial will post 4.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Esquire Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.01%. Esquire Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.90%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Selig Zises sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.89, for a total transaction of $114,725.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 107,533 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,934,689.37. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 18.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Esquire Financial

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ESQ. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Esquire Financial in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $42,000. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Esquire Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $127,000. Cetera Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Esquire Financial in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $420,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Esquire Financial by 10.6% in the 1st quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 11,066 shares of the company’s stock valued at $525,000 after buying an additional 1,065 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in Esquire Financial by 96.7% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 11,609 shares of the company’s stock worth $580,000 after purchasing an additional 5,706 shares during the last quarter. 54.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Esquire Financial Company Profile

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.