ESQ vs. PGC, VBNK, BLX, MDBH, HRZN, MLP, FFWM, CTO, AROW, and MYN
Should you be buying Esquire Financial stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Esquire Financial include Peapack-Gladstone Financial (PGC), VersaBank (VBNK), Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A. (BLX), MDB Capital (MDBH), Horizon Technology Finance (HRZN), Maui Land & Pineapple (MLP), First Foundation (FFWM), CTO Realty Growth (CTO), Arrow Financial (AROW), and BlackRock MuniYield New York Quality Fund (MYN). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Peapack-Gladstone Financial (NASDAQ:PGC) and Esquire Financial (NASDAQ:ESQ) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, community ranking, institutional ownership, media sentiment, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.
Peapack-Gladstone Financial has a beta of 0.99, meaning that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Esquire Financial has a beta of 0.79, meaning that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Peapack-Gladstone Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Esquire Financial. Peapack-Gladstone Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Esquire Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Peapack-Gladstone Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Esquire Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Peapack-Gladstone Financial pays out 7.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Esquire Financial pays out 12.2% 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 2 consecutive years. Esquire Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
72.8% of Peapack-Gladstone Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.7% of Esquire Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 7.2% of Peapack-Gladstone Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 18.5% of Esquire Financial shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Peapack-Gladstone Financial had 1 more articles in the media than Esquire Financial. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Peapack-Gladstone Financial and 12 mentions for Esquire Financial. Esquire Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.23 beat Peapack-Gladstone Financial's score of -0.44 indicating that Peapack-Gladstone Financial is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Esquire Financial received 7 more outperform votes than Peapack-Gladstone Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 60.86% of users gave Peapack-Gladstone Financial an outperform vote while only 57.66% of users gave Esquire Financial an outperform vote.
Esquire Financial has a net margin of 33.72% compared to Esquire Financial's net margin of 12.94%. Peapack-Gladstone Financial's return on equity of 20.76% beat Esquire Financial's return on equity.
Peapack-Gladstone Financial currently has a consensus price target of $30.50, indicating a potential upside of 33.30%. Esquire Financial has a consensus price target of $61.00, indicating a potential upside of 29.93%. Given Esquire Financial's higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Peapack-Gladstone Financial is more favorable than Esquire Financial.
Summary
Esquire Financial beats Peapack-Gladstone Financial on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ESQ and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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