Critical Contrast: Esquire Financial (ESQ) versus The Competition

Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) is one of 920 publicly-traded companies in the “Banks” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Esquire Financial to similar businesses based on the strength of its dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Esquire Financial and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Esquire Financial	26.92%	21.49%	2.66%
Esquire Financial Competitors	15.63%	9.48%	0.93%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

54.7% of Esquire Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.9% of shares of all “Banks” companies are held by institutional investors. 13.9% of Esquire Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.8% of shares of all “Banks” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Esquire Financial and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Esquire Financial	0	1	0	3	3.50
Esquire Financial Competitors	7457	30157	27705	1451	2.35

Esquire Financial presently has a consensus target price of $122.50, suggesting a potential downside of 1.97%. As a group, “Banks” companies have a potential upside of 17.42%. Given Esquire Financial’s peers higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Esquire Financial has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Dividends

Esquire Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Esquire Financial pays out 13.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Banks” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.5% and pay out 28.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Esquire Financial has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Esquire Financial and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Esquire Financial	$164.50 million	$50.82 million	20.79
Esquire Financial Competitors	$9.93 billion	$2.41 billion	18.77

Esquire Financial’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Esquire Financial. Esquire Financial is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Risk and Volatility

Esquire Financial has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Esquire Financial’s peers have a beta of 0.61, suggesting that their average share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Esquire Financial beats its peers on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

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. It also provides commercial loans, such as short-term financing for inventory, receivables, the purchase of supplies, or other operating needs arising during the normal course of business, as well as loans to its qualified ISO customers; commercial lines of credit; consumer loans consisting of post-settlement consumer and structured settlement loans to plaintiffs and claimants, as well as loans to individuals for debt consolidation, medical expenses, living expenses, payment of outstanding bills, or other consumer needs; and real estate loans, such as multifamily, 1-4 family residential, commercial real estate, and construction loans, as well as merchant services. In addition, it offers cash management, cash sweep, online and mobile banking, individual retirement accounts, and working capital lines of credit. Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Jericho, New York.