Empowered Funds LLC Makes New Investment in Alerus Financial $ALRS

Key Points

• Empowered Funds LLC purchased 99,166 shares of Alerus Financial valued at approximately $3.1 million, while institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 51.25% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment is cautious: one analyst rates Alerus Financial a Buy and six rate it Hold, producing a consensus Hold rating and an average price target of $35.50.
• Alerus Financial exceeded quarterly expectations with earnings of $0.80 per share and revenue of $80 million. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.22 per share, equal to a 2.7% annualized yield.

Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 99,166 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,084,000. Empowered Funds LLC owned about 0.40% of Alerus Financial as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ALRS. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alerus Financial during the second quarter valued at approximately $56,672,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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 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 6.8% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 886,815 shares of the company's stock worth $21,027,000 after acquiring an additional 56,763 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alerus Financial by 4.0% in the fourth 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. Finally, Endeavour Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Alerus Financial by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Endeavour Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 516,532 shares of the company's stock worth $11,632,000 after purchasing an additional 2,597 shares in the last quarter. 51.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on ALRS shares. DA Davidson set a $36.00 price objective on Alerus Financial in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Zacks Research cut shares of Alerus Financial from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Alerus Financial from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. Piper Sandler increased their target price 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, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Alerus Financial from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $35.50.

Alerus Financial Price Performance

Shares of ALRS stock opened at $32.61 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The company has a market capitalization of $811.99 million, a PE ratio of 30.76 and a beta of 0.67. The firm's 50-day moving average is $32.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.33. Alerus Financial has a 12 month low of $20.31 and a 12 month high of $34.40.

Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $80.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $76.99 million. Alerus Financial had a net margin of 6.87% and a return on equity of 14.41%. Analysts predict that Alerus Financial will post 3.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Alerus Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 25th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. Alerus Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 83.02%.

Alerus Financial Company 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.

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