Great Southern Bancorp, Inc. GSBC has gone on sale in 2025 in the stock market sell-off. It's a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) which is expected to grow earnings by 7.6% in 2025.
Great Southern Bancorp is the holding company for Great Southern Bank which was founded in 1923 in Springfield, Mo, with 4 employees and $5,000. It has grown to 97 offices across 12 states, including 89 retail banking centers in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska.
Additionally, Great Southern Bancorp has commercial lending offices in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Omaha, and Phoenix, along with one home loan center in Springfield, Mo.
It has a market cap of $619 million.
A Beat in the First Quarter of 2025
On Apr 16, 2025, Great Southern Bancorp reported the preliminary earnings for the first quarter 2025 and beat on the Zacks Consensus by $0.21. Earnings were $1.47 versus the Zacks Consensus of $1.26.
It has beat on earnings 4 out of the last 5 quarters.
Net interest income for the quarter rose $4.5 million, or approximately 10.1% to $49.3 million from $44.8 million a year ago driven by higher interest income on loans and lower interest expense on deposit accounts.
As for problematic loans, non-performing assets and potential problem loans totaled $17 million as of Mar 31, 2025, up $342,000 from $16.6 million at the end of 2024, on Dec 31, 2024.
On Mar 31, 2025, non-performing assets were $9.5 million, or 0.16% of total assets, a decrease of $48,000 from $9.6 million as of Dec 31, 2024.
“Despite external economic pressures, our core operations remained strong," said Joseph W. Turner, President and CEO of Great Southern.
"Total interest income for the first quarter of 2025 was $80.2 million, reflecting higher earning asset levels and loan yields. Net interest income for the quarter remained healthy at $49.3 million, supported by disciplined asset-liability management and a deliberate strategy to control funding costs through management of our funding mix and duration amid persistent deposit competition," he added.
"Importantly, we saw no material deterioration in our core non-time deposit balances, reflecting customer stability and the durability of our franchise," he said.
Great Southern is Focused on the Shareholders
Great Southern is shareholder friendly. In the first quarter of 2025, it repurchased 175,000 shares of stock.
It also announced that in Apr 2025, the company's Board of Directors approved a new stock repurchase program of up to one million additional shares, which will succeed the existing program which was authorized in Nov 2022 as soon as it has exhausted itself.
As of Mar 31, 2025, there were still approximately 270,000 shares remaining in the existing program.
Great Southern also pays a dividend which is currently yielding 3%.
Analysts Are Bullish on 2025
The analysts liked what they heard about the first quarter as 2 estimates were revised in the last week for 2025. That pushed the 2025 Zacks Consensus Estimate up to $5.66 from $5.25.
That's earnings growth of 7.6% as Great Southern only made $5.26 in 2024.
Shares of Great Southern Pull Back in 2025
The bank stocks have not escaped the market weakness in 2025. Great Southern is off its January highs and is in the red year-to-date.
Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchHowever, this has made the shares more attractive. While it has a price-to-earnings ratio of just 9.4, which is considered to be cheap, banks are often valued by the price-to-book ratio.
Bank analysts often say that you buy a bank with a price-to-book ratio of 1.0, which is considered cheap, and you sell at 2.0, which is considered to be fully valued.
Great Southern has a price-to-book ratio of just 1.04.
Great Southern has seen it all in its 102 year history, including depressions, great recessions, war, pandemics and assassinations.
For investors looking for a place to hide out during the tariff volatility, a small cap bank, paying a dividend, like Great Southern Bancorp should be on your short list.
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Great Southern Bancorp, Inc. (GSBC): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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