Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) Upgraded at Zacks Research

Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) was upgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

ALRS has been the topic of a number of other reports. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Alerus Financial from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Alerus Financial from $28.00 to $28.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Alerus Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Alerus Financial from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Hovde Group lowered shares of Alerus Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.38.

Alerus Financial Stock Performance

Shares of ALRS stock opened at $27.10 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $692.68 million, a P/E ratio of 26.31 and a beta of 0.67. The business has a 50 day moving average of $24.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.47. Alerus Financial has a 52 week low of $20.26 and a 52 week high of $27.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $75.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.78 million. Alerus Financial had a net margin of 6.74% and a return on equity of 14.39%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alerus Financial will post 2.95 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alerus Financial

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alerus Financial by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,269,253 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,101,000 after buying an additional 16,779 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Alerus Financial by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 830,052 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,692,000 after acquiring an additional 33,359 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Alerus Financial by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 603,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,591,000 after acquiring an additional 23,403 shares during the last quarter. Endeavour Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Alerus Financial by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Endeavour Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 516,532 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,632,000 after acquiring an additional 2,597 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Alerus Financial by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 476,030 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,819,000 after acquiring an additional 4,284 shares during the period. 51.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Alerus Financial

Alerus Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ALRS) is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The firm provides a full range of commercial and consumer banking products, including deposit accounts, lending solutions and treasury management services for individuals, small businesses and larger corporate clients. Through its community banking network, Alerus emphasizes local decision-making and personalized service to meet the needs of its varied client base.

In addition to traditional banking offerings, Alerus operates a national mortgage origination and servicing platform that delivers home purchase and refinance loans.