Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESQ) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.18

Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESQ) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of 0.175 per share on Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. This is a boost from Esquire Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15.

Esquire Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 10.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Esquire Financial to earn $5.52 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.9%.

Esquire Financial Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ESQ traded up $2.15 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $87.42. The stock had a trading volume of 311,074 shares, compared to its average volume of 108,929. Esquire Financial has a 12 month low of $44.45 and a 12 month high of $90.00. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $80.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $68.62. The company has a market cap of $727.33 million, a P/E ratio of 17.59 and a beta of 0.73.

Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.38 by ($0.01). Esquire Financial had a net margin of 31.38% and a return on equity of 19.53%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Esquire Financial will post 5.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Rena Nigam acquired 640 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $77.50 per share, with a total value of $49,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,867 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $144,692.50. This trade represents a 52.16 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Selig Zises sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.77, for a total transaction of $614,160.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 62,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,805,878.77. This represents a 11.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on ESQ. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Esquire Financial in a report on Monday. Raymond James cut shares of Esquire Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Esquire Financial from $85.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday.

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.