ALRS vs. ABCB, BRKL, BUSE, CATY, CNOB, NWBI, OBK, PPBI, TOWN, and WSFS
Should you be buying Alerus Financial stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Alerus Financial include Ameris Bancorp (ABCB), Brookline Bancorp (BRKL), First Busey (BUSE), Cathay General Bancorp (CATY), ConnectOne Bancorp (CNOB), Northwest Bancshares (NWBI), Origin Bancorp (OBK), Pacific Premier Bancorp (PPBI), Towne Bank (TOWN), and WSFS Financial (WSFS). 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 business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, profitability and media sentiment.
Alerus Financial currently has a consensus target price of $25.63, suggesting a potential upside of 25.37%. Ameris Bancorp has a consensus target price of $72.14, suggesting a potential upside of 9.46%. Given Alerus Financial's higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Alerus Financial is more favorable than Ameris Bancorp.
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 10.58% beat Ameris Bancorp's return on equity.
Alerus Financial has a beta of 0.71, indicating that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ameris Bancorp has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Alerus Financial had 19 more articles in the media than Ameris Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 34 mentions for Alerus Financial and 15 mentions for Ameris Bancorp. Alerus Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.71 beat Ameris Bancorp's score of 0.67 indicating that Alerus Financial is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Alerus Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Ameris Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. 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 increased 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.
51.3% of Alerus Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of Ameris Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 4.2% of Alerus Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.4% of Ameris Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Ameris Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Alerus Financial. Ameris Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alerus Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
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 8/2/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
