Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESQ) Increases Dividend to $0.18 Per Share

Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESQ - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,RTT News reports. Investors 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 of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from Esquire Financial's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15.

Esquire Financial has a payout ratio of 10.0% indicating that 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 $0.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.0%.

Esquire Financial Stock Down 4.0 %

ESQ traded down $3.55 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $85.82. The company had a trading volume of 178,298 shares, compared to its average volume of 115,119. Esquire Financial has a 1 year low of $44.45 and a 1 year high of $90.18. The company has a market cap of $714.11 million, a P/E ratio of 16.63 and a beta of 0.73. The business has a 50-day moving average of $80.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $69.38.

Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ - Get Free Report) last announced 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 31.58% and a return on equity of 19.93%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Esquire Financial will post 5.52 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ESQ shares. Raymond James lowered 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 issued a $85.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Esquire Financial in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Esquire Financial from $85.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, January 27th.

Insider Transactions at Esquire Financial

In other news, Director Rena Nigam bought 640 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $77.50 per share, for a total transaction of $49,600.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 1,867 shares in the company, valued at approximately $144,692.50. This trade represents a 52.16 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Selig Zises sold 8,000 shares of the business'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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 62,601 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,805,878.77. This trade represents a 11.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.