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Chicago, IL – April 23, 2025 – Zacks Equity Research shares Great Southern Bancorp, Inc. GSBC as the Bull of the Day and Five Below, Inc. FIVE as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on CME Group Inc. CME, Cboe Global Markets Inc. CBOE and Intercontinental Exchange Inc. ICE.
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
Great Southern Bancorp, Inc. 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.
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 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%.
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.
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.
However, 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.
Five Below, Inc. is getting hit by the tariff uncertainties. This Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) guided below consensus for fiscal 2025.
Five Below is a value retailer offering trend-right, high-quality products geared towards teens and pre-teens. Most items are priced between $1 and $5 with some extreme value items priced above $5.
It is headquartered in Philadelphia and has over 1,700 stores in 44 states.
On Mar 19, 2025, Five Below reported its fiscal 2024 fourth quarter and full year results. It beat on the Zacks Consensus for the fourth quarter reporting $3.48 versus the consensus of $3.38.
It was the second earnings beat in a row.
Net sales rose 4% to $1.39 billion from $1.34 billion in the prior year, or, when you exclude the impact of the 53rd week in fiscal 2023, it was an increase of 7.8%.
Comparable sales, a key metric for retailers, fell 3%.
Five Below continues to aggressively expand. In the quarter it opened a net new 22 stores and ended the quarter with 1,771 stores in 44 states. That's an increase in stores of 14.7% from the same period a year before.
For the full year the company had a rapid pace of growth. Five Below opened 227 net new stores in fiscal 2024 compared to 204 net new stores in fiscal 2023.
Five Below took into consideration the tariffs when giving its guidance but this was on Mar 19, 2025, before Liberation Day.
Even still, the analysts have not adjusted their estimates for the post-Liberation Day reality.
Five Below guided comparable sales from flat to a 3% increase for the full year.
Earnings are expected to be in the range of $4.10 to $4.72. This was below the Zacks Consensus.
Not surprisingly, the analysts cut their estimates to get into agreement with the guidance. 9 estimates were cut in the last 60 days and 2 were slashed in the last 30 days.
The Zacks Consensus fell to $4.44 from $5.03 just 60 days before. This is an earnings decline of 11.9% as Five Below made $5.04 in fiscal 2024.
Here's what it looks like on the price and consensus chart.
The retailers have been hit hard by the tariff uncertainties. Shares of Five Below have sunk 32% year-to-date and were recently trading at new 5-year lows.
Is Five Below cheap?
It trades with a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 15.3 which is in value stock territory.
Five Below also has a PEG ratio, which measures earnings over growth, of just 0.6. A PEG ratio under 1.0 usually indicates a company has both value and growth.
However, even though Five Below guided with tariff impacts in March, there are still uncertainties surrounding earnings for this year.
Five Below isn't scheduled to report first quarter earnings until June.
Investors might want to wait on the sidelines for an update on tariffs and the business before diving in.
The Securities and Exchanges industry comprises companies that operate electronic marketplaces, which facilitate the buying and selling of stocks, stock options, and bonds or commodity contracts. They facilitate trading across a diverse range of products in multiple asset classes and geographies. Industry players generate revenues from fees received from the listed companies on their exchanges.
Within the Financials sector, the Zacks-defined Securities and Exchanges industry is currently within the top 4% of the Zacks Industry Rank. Since the computer storage devices industry is ranked in the top half of the Zacks Ranked Industries, we expect it to outperform the market over the next three to six months.
At this stage, we recommend three U.S. securities and exchanges stocks with a favorable Zacks Rank to strengthen your portfolio. These are CME Group Inc., Cboe Global Markets Inc. and Intercontinental Exchange Inc..
Industry players are largely dependent on product and service portfolios for revenues. Major services include trade execution, clearing, settlement services for securities and commodity contracts, listing services plus trading, and clearing systems services. Sustainable trading volume growth, driven by trading volatility, fuels transaction and clearing fees (a major component of the top line of industry players).
Other revenue sources include data products and financial indexes, along with information and public company services. Increasing focus on accelerating the non-trading revenue base, which includes market technology, listing and information revenues, infuses dynamism in the business profiles of the industry participants.
Per technavio, the securities exchanges market in 2028 is expected to see a five-year CAGR of 12.1% to $49.6 billion, given increasing demand for various investment opportunities. Also, the increased adoption of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, among others, is a boon.
CME Group
CME Group's strong market position, driven by varied derivative product lines, bodes well. CME's efforts to expand and cross-sell through strategic alliances, acquisitions, new product initiatives and a stable global presence are encouraging.
While higher electronic trading volume adds CME's scalability, product innovation and a growing proportion of volume from customers outside the United States have been driving results. Solid liquidity supports wealth distribution to its shareholders.
CME offers Bitcoin and Ether options based on the exchange's cash-settled standard and micro-Bitcoin and Ethereum futures contracts. Its options give the buyer of the call/put the right to buy/sell cryptocurrency futures contracts at a specific price at some future date. CME currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
CME Group has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 6.7% and 7.2%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 3.7% over the last 30 days.
Cboe Global Markets
Zacks Rank #2 Cboe Global Markets trading volume growth should drive transaction fee and, in turn, fuel organic growth. For 2025, CBOE projects total organic net revenue growth in the mid-single-digit range and Data Vantage organic net revenue growth in the mid to high single-digit range.
CBOE remains on track to grow its recurring non-transaction revenues. Strategic acquisitions are improving CBOE's competitive edge by diversifying the portfolio, adding capabilities, generating expense synergies, and expanding into new geographies. Strong liquidity has been aiding capital deployment.
Cboe Global Markets has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 6.8% and 7.3%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 0.3% over the last seven days.
Intercontinental Exchange
Zacks Rank #2 Intercontinental Exchange benefits from its compelling product and service portfolio, the broad range of risk management services and strength in global data services. Continued strength in ICE's energy franchise and improving recurring market data revenues are likely to keep growth on track.
Strategic buyouts help Intercontinental Exchange achieve cost synergies that are in sync with its aim of generating long-term value for shareholders. ICE is well-poised for growth due to accelerated digitization in the U.S. residential mortgage industry. ICE is also engaged in the effective deployment of capital.
Intercontinental Exchange has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 6.3% and 12.5%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 1.5% over the last 30 days.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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