Esquire Financial (ESQ) Competitors

Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) and Origin Bancorp (NASDAQ:OBK) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, media sentiment, earnings, risk and valuation.

Is ESQ or OBK more profitable?

Esquire Financial has a net margin of 31.37% compared to Origin Bancorp's net margin of 12.34%. Esquire Financial's return on equity of 19.20% beat Origin Bancorp's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Esquire Financial	31.37%	19.20%	2.45%
Origin Bancorp	12.34%	6.91%	0.77%

Do analysts prefer ESQ or OBK?

Esquire Financial currently has a consensus target price of $96.50, indicating a potential upside of 0.92%. Origin Bancorp has a consensus target price of $42.20, indicating a potential upside of 14.05%. Given Origin Bancorp's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Origin Bancorp is more favorable than Esquire Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Esquire Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
Origin Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in ESQ or OBK?

54.7% of Esquire Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.7% of Origin Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 18.0% of Esquire Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.4% of Origin Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility & risk, ESQ or OBK?

Esquire Financial has a beta of 0.52, indicating that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Origin Bancorp has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to ESQ or OBK?

In the previous week, Esquire Financial had 5 more articles in the media than Origin Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for Esquire Financial and 3 mentions for Origin Bancorp. Esquire Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.71 beat Origin Bancorp's score of 0.25 indicating that Esquire Financial is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Esquire Financial	3 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Origin Bancorp	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, ESQ or OBK?

Origin Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Esquire Financial. Origin Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Esquire Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Esquire Financial	$138.27M	5.85	$43.66M	$5.29	18.08
Origin Bancorp	$358.20M	3.22	$76.49M	$2.44	15.16

Is ESQ or OBK a better dividend stock?

Esquire Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Origin Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Esquire Financial pays out 13.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Origin Bancorp pays out 24.6% 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 4 consecutive years.

Summary

Esquire Financial beats Origin Bancorp on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.