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
Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) and Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, risk, media sentiment and earnings.
91.6% of Ameris Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.3% of Alerus Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 5.4% of Ameris Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.2% of Alerus Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Ameris Bancorp has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alerus Financial has a beta of 0.7, indicating that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Ameris Bancorp had 1 more articles in the media than Alerus Financial. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for Ameris Bancorp and 2 mentions for Alerus Financial. Alerus Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.42 beat Ameris Bancorp's score of 1.34 indicating that Alerus Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Ameris Bancorp currently has a consensus price target of $71.43, suggesting a potential upside of 6.14%. Alerus Financial has a consensus price target of $23.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.86%. Given Ameris Bancorp's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Ameris Bancorp is more favorable than Alerus Financial.
Ameris Bancorp has a net margin of 21.46% compared to Alerus Financial's net margin of 7.81%. Ameris Bancorp's return on equity of 9.57% beat Alerus Financial's return on equity.
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.
Ameris Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Alerus Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Ameris Bancorp pays out 14.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Alerus Financial pays out 68.9% 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.
Summary
Ameris Bancorp beats Alerus Financial on 15 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.
Skip ChartMedia 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.
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This page (NASDAQ:ALRS) was last updated on 7/12/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff