Jeffrey Bolton Acquires 1,000 Shares of Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) Stock

Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) Director Jeffrey Bolton acquired 1,000 shares of Alerus Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were purchased at an average price of $32.45 per share, with a total value of $32,450.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 15,163 shares in the company, valued at $492,039.35. This represents a 7.06% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Alerus Financial Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ:ALRS opened at $33.37 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $830.91 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.48 and a beta of 0.67. Alerus Financial has a 52 week low of $20.31 and a 52 week high of $34.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $32.54 and a 200 day moving average of $28.45.

Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $80.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $76.99 million. Alerus Financial had a net margin of 6.87% and a return on equity of 14.41%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alerus Financial will post 3.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alerus Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 9th. Investors of record on Friday, September 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 25th. Alerus Financial’s payout ratio is 83.02%.

Institutional Trading of Alerus Financial

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alerus Financial in the second quarter worth about $56,672,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position 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 buying an additional 16,779 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Alerus Financial by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 886,815 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,027,000 after buying an additional 56,763 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Alerus Financial by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 603,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,591,000 after buying an additional 23,403 shares during the period. Finally, Endeavour Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in Alerus Financial by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Endeavour Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 516,532 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,632,000 after buying an additional 2,597 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ALRS shares. Wall Street Zen cut Alerus Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. DA Davidson set a $36.00 price target on Alerus Financial in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Alerus Financial from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Alerus Financial from $32.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $37.00 price objective on shares of Alerus Financial in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.50.

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.