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

Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESQ) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.175 per share on Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost 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. Research 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 Trading Up 1.0 %

ESQ stock opened at $85.31 on Wednesday. Esquire Financial has a 1-year low of $44.45 and a 1-year high of $90.18. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $81.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $70.59. The firm has a market cap of $709.78 million, a PE ratio of 16.53 and a beta of 0.73.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Selig Zises sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.77, for a total transaction of $614,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 62,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,805,878.77. This represents a 11.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Richard T. Powers sold 1,427 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.99, for a total transaction of $124,134.73. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 58,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,132,149.03. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 12,427 shares of company stock worth $975,745 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 18.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.