Selig Zises Sells 20,000 Shares of Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESQ) Stock

Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESQ) Director Selig Zises sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.59, for a total value of $1,551,800.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 35,501 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,754,522.59. This represents a 36.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Esquire Financial Price Performance

Shares of ESQ opened at $73.87 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $614.67 million, a P/E ratio of 14.32 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $73.05. Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.45 and a 1 year high of $90.18.

Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) last issued its 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 return on equity of 19.93% and a net margin of 31.58%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. will post 5.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Esquire Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.175 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from Esquire Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Esquire Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 13.57%.

Institutional Trading of Esquire Financial

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Esquire Financial by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 29,498 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,345,000 after purchasing an additional 1,274 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in shares of Esquire Financial by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 4,055 shares of the company’s stock valued at $322,000 after purchasing an additional 568 shares during the period. Bosun Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Esquire Financial during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $487,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of Esquire Financial by 19.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 7,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $577,000 after purchasing an additional 1,182 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Esquire Financial by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 22,838 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,816,000 after purchasing an additional 696 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ESQ has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Raymond James cut shares of Esquire Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated 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 objective on shares of Esquire Financial from $85.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock 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.