PGC vs. ESQ, BLX, LKFN, CHCO, EFSC, RBCAA, NBHC, FCF, SYBT, and FBNC
Should you be buying Peapack-Gladstone Financial stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Peapack-Gladstone Financial include Esquire Financial (ESQ), Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A. (BLX), Lakeland Financial (LKFN), City (CHCO), Enterprise Financial Services (EFSC), Republic Bancorp (RBCAA), National Bank (NBHC), First Commonwealth Financial (FCF), Stock Yards Bancorp (SYBT), and First Bancorp (FBNC). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) and Peapack-Gladstone Financial (NASDAQ:PGC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, media sentiment, community ranking, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, profitability and dividends.
In the previous week, Esquire Financial had 7 more articles in the media than Peapack-Gladstone Financial. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Esquire Financial and 2 mentions for Peapack-Gladstone Financial. Esquire Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.94 beat Peapack-Gladstone Financial's score of 0.14 indicating that Peapack-Gladstone Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
54.7% of Esquire Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.8% of Peapack-Gladstone Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 18.9% of Esquire Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of Peapack-Gladstone Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Esquire Financial has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Peapack-Gladstone Financial has a beta of 0.99, suggesting that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Esquire Financial has a net margin of 31.50% compared to Esquire Financial's net margin of 10.11%. Peapack-Gladstone Financial's return on equity of 20.20% beat Esquire Financial's return on equity.
Esquire Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Peapack-Gladstone Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Esquire Financial pays out 12.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Peapack-Gladstone Financial pays out 9.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Esquire Financial has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Esquire Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Peapack-Gladstone Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Esquire Financial. Esquire Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Peapack-Gladstone Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Esquire Financial currently has a consensus price target of $62.00, suggesting a potential upside of 35.46%. Peapack-Gladstone Financial has a consensus price target of $29.00, suggesting a potential upside of 33.64%. Given Peapack-Gladstone Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Esquire Financial is more favorable than Peapack-Gladstone Financial.
Esquire Financial received 7 more outperform votes than Peapack-Gladstone Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 60.98% of users gave Peapack-Gladstone Financial an outperform vote while only 57.78% of users gave Esquire Financial an outperform vote.
Summary
Esquire Financial beats Peapack-Gladstone Financial on 14 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding PGC and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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