ALRS vs. ABCB, BUSE, CATY, CNOB, FMBH, MCBS, NWBI, TOWN, WSFS, and TMP
Should you be buying Alerus Financial stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Alerus Financial include Ameris Bancorp (ABCB), First Busey (BUSE), Cathay General Bancorp (CATY), ConnectOne Bancorp (CNOB), First Mid Bancshares (FMBH), MetroCity Bankshares (MCBS), Northwest Bancshares (NWBI), Towne Bank (TOWN), WSFS Financial (WSFS), and Tompkins Financial (TMP). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Alerus Financial vs. Its Competitors
Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) and Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and analyst recommendations.
Alerus Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Ameris Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Alerus Financial pays out 49.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ameris Bancorp pays out 14.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Alerus Financial has raised its dividend for 25 consecutive years. Alerus Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Ameris Bancorp has a net margin of 21.46% compared to Alerus Financial's net margin of 11.06%. Alerus Financial's return on equity of 10.21% beat Ameris Bancorp's return on equity.
51.3% of Alerus Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of Ameris Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.2% of Alerus Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.4% of Ameris Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Alerus Financial has a beta of 0.7, suggesting that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ameris Bancorp has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Ameris Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Alerus Financial. Alerus Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ameris Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Alerus Financial had 4 more articles in the media than Ameris Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Alerus Financial and 1 mentions for Ameris Bancorp. Alerus Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.83 beat Ameris Bancorp's score of 0.63 indicating that Alerus Financial is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Alerus Financial currently has a consensus target price of $25.63, indicating a potential upside of 18.63%. Ameris Bancorp has a consensus target price of $72.14, indicating a potential downside of 2.84%. Given Alerus Financial's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Alerus Financial is more favorable than Ameris Bancorp.
Summary
Ameris Bancorp beats Alerus Financial on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ALRS and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Alerus Financial Competitors List
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This page (NASDAQ:ALRS) was last updated on 10/9/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
