Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (ESQ) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 on March 3rd

Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESQ) announced 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 yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Esquire Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15.

Esquire Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 11.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Esquire Financial to earn $6.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.6%.

Esquire Financial Stock Performance

ESQ opened at $85.31 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $81.82 and a 200-day moving average of $70.59. Esquire Financial has a fifty-two week low of $44.45 and a fifty-two week high of $90.18. The company has a market capitalization of $709.78 million, a P/E ratio of 16.53 and a beta of 0.73.

Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) last announced its earnings results 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 return on equity of 19.93% and a net margin of 31.58%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Esquire Financial will post 5.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ESQ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their price target 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 target price (up from $80.00) on shares of Esquire Financial in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Raymond James downgraded shares of Esquire Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th.

Insider Activity

In other Esquire Financial news, Director Selig Zises sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.77, for a total value of $614,160.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 62,601 shares in the company, valued at $4,805,878.77. This trade represents a 11.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Joseph Melohn sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.15, for a total transaction of $237,450.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,683 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $291,509.45. This trade represents a 44.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 12,427 shares of company stock worth $975,745. Insiders own 18.90% of the company’s stock.

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.