Grace & White Inc. NY Sells 28,125 Shares of Alerus Financial $ALRS

Grace & White Inc. NY decreased its stake in shares of Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) by 11.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 228,108 shares of the company’s stock after selling 28,125 shares during the quarter. Grace & White Inc. NY owned about 0.89% of Alerus Financial worth $5,408,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ALRS. Phocas Financial Corp. boosted its stake in Alerus Financial by 102.2% during the fourth quarter. Phocas Financial Corp. now owns 334,357 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,530,000 after acquiring an additional 168,987 shares in the last quarter. Gator Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alerus Financial in the third quarter worth $1,437,000. M3F Inc. increased its stake in Alerus Financial by 21.1% in the third quarter. M3F Inc. now owns 262,403 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,810,000 after purchasing an additional 45,695 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Alerus Financial by 83.4% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 73,019 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,617,000 after purchasing an additional 33,205 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Johnson Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alerus Financial during the fourth quarter valued at about $635,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 51.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ALRS. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Alerus Financial from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen raised Alerus Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 30th. Weiss Ratings raised Alerus Financial from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Alerus Financial from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Alerus Financial from $28.50 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $29.25.

Alerus Financial Trading Up 0.6%

NASDAQ:ALRS opened at $30.82 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $27.98 and a 200-day moving average of $25.37. The company has a market cap of $774.51 million, a PE ratio of 29.92 and a beta of 0.69. Alerus Financial has a one year low of $20.26 and a one year high of $30.95.

Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $75.78 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.78 million. Alerus Financial had a net margin of 6.74% and a return on equity of 14.39%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alerus Financial will post 3.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alerus Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 26th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. This is a boost from Alerus Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 26th. Alerus Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 81.55%.

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.