Insider Selling: Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESQ) Director Sells $1,551,800.00 in Stock

Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESQ) Director Selig Zises sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.59, for a total value of $1,551,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 35,501 shares in the company, valued at $2,754,522.59. This trade represents a 36.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Esquire Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ESQ opened at $72.28 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $601.44 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.01 and a beta of 0.78. Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $44.45 and a one year high of $90.18. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $73.06.

Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.38 by ($0.01). Esquire Financial had a return on equity of 19.93% and a net margin of 31.58%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. will post 5.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Esquire Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $0.175 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.97%. This is an increase from Esquire Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Esquire Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.57%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Esquire Financial

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ESQ. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in Esquire Financial in the fourth quarter worth about $33,407,000. Ampfield Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Esquire Financial by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Ampfield Management L.P. now owns 251,633 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,005,000 after acquiring an additional 24,773 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Esquire Financial by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 166,915 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,270,000 after acquiring an additional 23,998 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Esquire Financial by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 387,730 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,825,000 after acquiring an additional 21,266 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Esquire Financial by 161.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 23,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,532,000 after acquiring an additional 14,521 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 54.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on ESQ shares. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Esquire Financial from $85.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Esquire Financial in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Raymond James downgraded Esquire Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th.

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.