CenterBook Partners LP Purchases New Shares in Alerus Financial $ALRS

CenterBook Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 33,443 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $740,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALRS. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alerus Financial by 1.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,269,253 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,101,000 after acquiring an additional 16,779 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alerus Financial by 4.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 561,336 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,150,000 after acquiring an additional 23,112 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC lifted its position in Alerus Financial by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 294,542 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,391,000 after purchasing an additional 8,727 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alerus Financial by 265.7% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 236,720 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,123,000 after buying an additional 171,984 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M3F Inc. raised its position in shares of Alerus Financial by 15.6% during the 2nd quarter. M3F Inc. now owns 216,708 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,690,000 after acquiring an additional 29,261 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 51.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ALRS shares. Hovde Group downgraded Alerus Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Raymond James Financial set a $29.00 price target on shares of Alerus Financial and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Alerus Financial from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of Alerus Financial from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.00.

Alerus Financial Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ ALRS opened at $25.45 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $23.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $22.60. Alerus Financial has a 12 month low of $15.78 and a 12 month high of $26.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company has a market cap of $646.43 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.56 and a beta of 0.64.

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

Alerus Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 9th. Investors of record on Friday, December 26th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 26th. Alerus Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 127.27%.

Alerus Financial Profile

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.