Esquire Financial (ESQ) Competitors

Peapack-Gladstone Financial (NASDAQ:PGC) and Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, media sentiment and risk.

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in PGC or ESQ?

72.8% of Peapack-Gladstone Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.7% of Esquire Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 7.6% of Peapack-Gladstone Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 18.9% of Esquire Financial shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is PGC or ESQ more profitable?

Esquire Financial has a net margin of 31.38% compared to Peapack-Gladstone Financial's net margin of 8.12%. Esquire Financial's return on equity of 20.12% beat Peapack-Gladstone Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Peapack-Gladstone Financial	8.12%	5.55%	0.50%
Esquire Financial	31.38%	20.12%	2.51%

Do analysts prefer PGC or ESQ?

Peapack-Gladstone Financial presently has a consensus price target of $33.50, suggesting a potential downside of 8.79%. Esquire Financial has a consensus price target of $69.00, suggesting a potential downside of 3.85%. Given Esquire Financial's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Esquire Financial is more favorable than Peapack-Gladstone Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Peapack-Gladstone Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Esquire Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the media refer more to PGC or ESQ?

In the previous week, Peapack-Gladstone Financial and Peapack-Gladstone Financial both had 2 articles in the media. Peapack-Gladstone Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.96 beat Esquire Financial's score of -0.06 indicating that Peapack-Gladstone Financial is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Peapack-Gladstone Financial	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Esquire Financial	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has more volatility and risk, PGC or ESQ?

Peapack-Gladstone Financial has a beta of 0.96, meaning that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Esquire Financial has a beta of 0.7, meaning that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer PGC or ESQ?

Esquire Financial received 6 more outperform votes than Peapack-Gladstone Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.36% of users gave Peapack-Gladstone Financial an outperform vote while only 57.86% of users gave Esquire Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Peapack-Gladstone Financial	Outperform Votes 189 61.36%	Underperform Votes 119 38.64%
Esquire Financial	Outperform Votes 195 57.86%	Underperform Votes 142 42.14%

Is PGC or ESQ a better dividend stock?

Peapack-Gladstone Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Esquire Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Peapack-Gladstone Financial pays out 11.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Esquire Financial pays out 12.1% 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.

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, PGC or ESQ?

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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Peapack-Gladstone Financial	$377.59M	1.71	$48.85M	$1.81	20.29
Esquire Financial	$121.64M	4.90	$41.01M	$4.97	14.44

Summary

Esquire Financial beats Peapack-Gladstone Financial on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.