Sanctuary Advisors LLC Takes Position in Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. $ESQ

Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESQ) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 6,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $745,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in Esquire Financial by 215.3% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 81,087 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,113,000 after purchasing an additional 55,367 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Esquire Financial by 69.5% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 12,367 shares of the company’s stock worth $932,000 after purchasing an additional 5,071 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Esquire Financial by 3.9% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 4,178 shares of the company’s stock worth $315,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of Esquire Financial by 54.2% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 4,676 shares of the company’s stock valued at $443,000 after purchasing an additional 1,643 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Esquire Financial by 9.6% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,684 shares of the company’s stock valued at $538,000 after purchasing an additional 499 shares in the last quarter. 54.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Esquire Financial news, Director Robert Mitzman sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.60, for a total value of $388,800.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 139,679 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,102,398.40. This trade represents a 2.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 13.90% of the company’s stock.

Esquire Financial Trading Down 1.6%

NASDAQ:ESQ opened at $112.35 on Friday. Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $92.10 and a 12 month high of $134.82. The company has a market cap of $1.36 billion, a PE ratio of 18.54 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $121.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $113.18.

Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $1.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.56 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $42.13 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $41.59 million. Esquire Financial had a return on equity of 18.22% and a net margin of 29.30%. Research analysts forecast that Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. will post 6.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Esquire Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. Esquire Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 13.20%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on ESQ shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded Esquire Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Esquire Financial from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $120.33.

Esquire Financial Company Profile

Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc is a bank holding company whose principal subsidiary, Esquire Bank, specializes in residential mortgage lending and community banking services. Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, the company operates through multiple distribution channels, including retail branches, wholesale and correspondent lending divisions. Esquire Financial focuses on tailored home financing solutions while maintaining a community-oriented approach to banking.

In its mortgage lending business, Esquire Bank originates and services a range of home loan products, including government-insured mortgages (FHA, VA and USDA) as well as conventional conforming and jumbo loans.