Great Southern Bancorp sees Q1 EPS $1.13, consensus $1.04

Sees Q1 NII $44.8M, consensus $47.51M. CEO Joseph W. Turner said, “Our Q1 performance was steady as we continue to operate in an uncertain and challenging economic environment…key drivers of our performance included continued moderate increases in deposit costs, significant competition for deposits and lower loan origination volume…Like many other banks, we experienced overall higher deposit costs during Q1 of 2024, primarily due to current market interest rates and competitive pressures. While deposit interest expenses increased, the pace of the increase has moderated compared to the last few quarters. These higher funding costs drove a decrease in net interest income – approximately $8.4M lower in Q1 2024 compared to Q1 of 2023, and about $331K lower vs. Q4 2023…As anticipated, total outstanding loan balances decreased slightly since the end of 2023…Overall credit quality metrics remained strong during the quarter, although non-performing assets did increase. Non-performing assets to total assets were 0.37% at March 31, 2024 versus 0.20% at December 31, 2023. Compared to the end of 2023, non-performing assets increased $9.5M to $21.3M at the end of March 2024. The majority of this increase was in the other residential (multi-family) loans category and was due to the unique circumstances of one distinct credit relationship. Delinquencies in our loan portfolio remained at low levels and net charge-offs were not significant in the first quarter of 2024”.