Alerus Financial Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.20 (NASDAQ:ALRS)

Alerus Financial Co. (NASDAQ:ALRS) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share on Friday, April 11th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.92%.

Alerus Financial has increased its dividend payment by an average of 7.8% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 24 years. Alerus Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 34.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Alerus Financial to earn $2.43 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.9%.

Alerus Financial Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of ALRS opened at $20.42 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $20.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.46. Alerus Financial has a twelve month low of $17.99 and a twelve month high of $24.41. The stock has a market cap of $517.44 million, a PE ratio of 20.02 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.16. Alerus Financial had a return on equity of 7.66% and a net margin of 6.26%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alerus Financial will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on ALRS. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Alerus Financial from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $24.00 price objective (up from $22.00) on shares of Alerus Financial in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Alerus Financial from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $23.00 price objective on shares of Alerus Financial in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alerus Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.40.

About Alerus Financial

Alerus Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Alerus Financial, National Association that engages in the provision of various financial services to businesses and consumers. The company operates in four segments: Banking, Mortgage, Retirement and Benefit Services, and Wealth Management.