Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has issued a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $26.00.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ALRS shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Alerus Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 31st. Raymond James Financial set a $29.00 price target on shares of Alerus Financial and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Alerus Financial from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Hovde Group lowered shares of Alerus Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their target price on Alerus Financial from $25.50 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th.

Institutional Trading of Alerus Financial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALRS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Alerus Financial by 1.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,269,253 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,101,000 after acquiring an additional 16,779 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Alerus Financial by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 796,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,639,000 after purchasing an additional 39,652 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alerus Financial by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 561,336 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,150,000 after purchasing an additional 23,112 shares in the last quarter. Phocas Financial Corp. increased its position in shares of Alerus Financial by 102.2% during the fourth quarter. Phocas Financial Corp. now owns 334,357 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,530,000 after buying an additional 168,987 shares during the period. Finally, Choreo LLC raised its stake in Alerus Financial by 3.1% in the second quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 294,542 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,391,000 after buying an additional 8,727 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.25% of the company’s stock.

Alerus Financial Trading Up 1.8%

NASDAQ ALRS opened at $26.04 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $661.42 million, a PE ratio of 39.46 and a beta of 0.64. Alerus Financial has a 1-year low of $15.78 and a 1-year high of $26.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $23.22 and a 200-day moving average of $22.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.28. Alerus Financial had a return on equity of 13.38% and a net margin of 4.36%.The business had revenue of $77.07 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $71.43 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alerus Financial will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

Alerus Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 9th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 26th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 26th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. Alerus Financial’s payout ratio is 127.27%.

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.