Great Southern Bancorp, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Great Southern Bank Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Congress Call. At this time, all participants are in listening mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Zach Mukaiwa, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining RedSouth and Bank's third quarter 2024 earnings call. Today, we will be discussing the company's results for the quarter ending September 30th, Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that during this call, forward-looking statements may be made regarding the company's future events and financial performance. These statements are subject to various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or projected. For a list of these factors, please refer to the forward-looking statements disclosure in the third quarter earnings release and other public filings. Joining me today are President and Chief Executive Officer, Joel Turner, and Chief Financial Officer Rex Kaufman. I'll now send the call over to Joe.

Okay, thanks, Zach, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for our third quarter earnings call. Our financial results reflect solid performance and the continued resilience of our operations despite the challenges in today's economic environment, particularly with fluctuating interest rates and broader macroeconomic pressures. We earned $1.41 per diluted common share, $16.5 million in net income for the third quarter of 2024. This compares to $1.33 for diluted common share last year in the same quarter and $1.45 in the second quarter of 2024. We also surpassed the $6 billion in asset mark during this quarter. These results, I think, demonstrate our ability to maintain solid earnings and a strong balance sheet. Regarding earnings performance, our annualized return on average assets was 1.11% during the quarter, and our annualized return on average equity was 11.1% during the quarter. Net interest income increased by 1.2 million or 2.6% to 48 million compared to 46.7 million in the year-ago quarter. Our net interest margin remained steady at 342 compared to 3.43% in the third quarter last year. The continued pressure on our margins is primarily due to elevated deposit costs, reflecting the competitive landscape for deposits and higher interest rate environment we've been operating in. We have seen some relief from the Fed's recent rate cut. But I think it's important to note that changes to our deposit costs will likely take time, or this rate level will likely take time to fully impact our funding costs. As we move forward, we will closely monitor how these rate adjustments influence deposit pricing and loan demand in the broader economy. Though we expect these macroeconomic factors to present challenges, we are well prepared to navigate the current environment by focusing on disciplined asset and liability management. We maintain moderate loan growth during the quarter, up $121.7 million for the year. I think we're up, you know, over $70 million in the quarter. This increase was primarily driven by expansion in our other residential loan segment, which was driven by completion of construction projects that transitioned into the permanent financing category. While we've seen some declines in construction and commercial business loans, which is reflective of ongoing economic uncertainties, our pipeline of loan commitments and unfunded lines remain solid at $1.04 billion at the end of September 2024. I think this positions us well to continue supporting our customers and pursuing selective lending opportunities. For more information about our loan portfolio, you can find our quarterly loan portfolio presentation on our investor relations site under the presentations link and is also on file with the SEC. From a credit quality perspective, nothing really different than what we said in the past, about as good a credit quality as we've ever had. We actually did make significant strides to even improve it this quarter. Non-performing assets decreased by 12.7 million. bringing our total non-performing assets down to $7.7 million, or 0.13% of total assets. That's down from 0.34% at June 30 and 0.20% at December 31-23. The decline was largely due to the resolution of two significant non-performing assets. Net charge-offs for the quarter were $1.5 million compared to $99,000 in the same period a year ago. A provision for credit losses of $1.2 million was recorded in the quarter as a result of the charge-offs and growth in the loan portfolio. One of our charge-offs related to a loan collateralized by an office building in the St. Louis, Missouri suburb of Clayton, Missouri, which we discussed in previous filings. Our outlook on the broader portfolio, including the office portfolio, remains positive. And we continue to view the commercial real estate market as a key area for potential growth, especially as economic conditions stabilize. Our capital position continues to be strong. Stockholders' equity has increased by $40.3 million since December 31, 2023, bringing our TCE ratio to 10% from 9.7%. This increase reflects both strong earnings and our disciplined approach to capital management. We remain committed to returning capital to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends while growing book value per share. During the quarter, we repurchased 2,971 shares at an average price of $53.04, and we declared a quarterly dividend of $0.40 per share. For the nine months ended September 30, 2024, we repurchased nearly 240,000 shares at an average price of $51.69, and we declared quarterly dividends totaling over the three quarters, $1.20 per common share. These actions align with our long-term strategy of delivering value to our shareholders while maintaining a strong capital base to support future growth. As far as the economic environment, the economic environment remains complex, with inflationary pressures easing but still above target, impacting consumer behavior and deposit growth. Recent interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve are expected to provide some relief on deposit costs, though the full benefits may take time to materialize. Competition for deposits, I think, has softened slightly, and while loan demand remains stable, we are closely monitoring credit quality as economic uncertainty continues. We remain focused on prudent risk management and disciplined capital allocation as we navigate these conditions. To wrap up, I'd like to thank our team for their continued dedication and our customers for their ongoing trust in Great Southern. Despite the current challenges, we remain confident in executing our long-term strategy, managing risk prudently, and delivering value to our shareholders. I'm confident that as we move through the remainder of the year, we are well positioned to build on the momentum we've achieved and continue delivering strong, consistent results. That concludes my prepared remarks. I'll turn the call over to our CFO, Rex Copeland, at this time. All right. Thank you, Joe, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll reiterate some of our financial results for the third quarter of 2024 and also provide more detail on performance and operational metrics. As mentioned before, net interest income for the third quarter of 2024 was $48 million, up $1.2 million or 2.6% from the same period last year. This increase was driven primarily by higher loan yields, which rose by 52 basis points year over year, and increased average interest earning assets. The total interest earned on loans and investment securities improved during the quarter, offsetting the continued upward pressure on our deposit costs due to higher rates and changes in deposit mix compared to the prior year period. Our debt interest margin, as mentioned, remained stable at 3.42%. That was compared to 3.43% in both the second quarter of 2024 and the third quarter of 2023. The stability of our margin, despite the challenging deposit rate environment, reflects our disciplined approach to balance sheet management and proactive steps to manage the cost of funds. However, we continue to feel the impact of higher rates on interest-bearing liabilities, with a 34 basis point increase in interest-bearing demand deposit costs compared to the third quarter of 2023. Time deposit costs also increased by 65 basis points compared to the prior year quarter. Year-to-date net interest income totaled $139.6 million, down from $148.1 million in the same period in 2023. This reflects the gradual compression in margins across the year as deposit and other funding costs rose faster than asset yields in the second half of 2023 and the first half of 2024. We anticipate this trend to moderate slightly as the Federal Reserve's recent rate cuts take effect, although the full impact will be felt over time. We have noted that since the Fed funds rate cut last month, our daily net interest income and margins so far have not been negatively affected. Turn down to deposits, our total deposits at the end of September 2024 were $4.7 billion up from the previous quarter. The growth was primarily in broker deposits and interest-bearing demand deposits, which helped offset some of the decrease in retail time deposit accounts. During the quarter, we renewed several large time deposits at rates that remain high, although we are seeing signs of stabilization in recent months. And $300 million of our broker deposits are floating rate tied to effective Fed funds. So those funding rates increase or decrease in line with changes to the Fed funds rate. Looking forward, we have $537 million in time deposits maturing within the next three months with an average rate of 4.53%. As market rates have decreased after the Federal Reserve rate cut, we expect to replace those deposits at lower rates, possibly between 3.50% and 4.20%. Our liquidity position remains robust with cash and equivalents of $208.4 million and access to additional funding lines through the Federal Home Loan Bank and the Federal Reserve, totaling $1.42 billion. We are well prepared to meet both current and future funding needs. From the liquidity perspective, we are in a strong position with available secure funding lines through the Home Loan Bank and Fed, as mentioned. We also, in total, all those with, including our on-balance sheet, liquidity would equal about $2 billion as of September 30th. Our deposit base remains diverse by customer type and geography and uninsured deposits account for roughly 14% of total deposits, excluding internal subsidiary accounts. While deposit costs remain elevated, the pace of these increases has moderated compared to earlier in the year. We expect this trend to continue as market conditions evolve particularly with the recent shift in the interest rate environment. Non-interest income for the third quarter was $7.0 million, down $860,000 from the same period in 2023. The decline was largely due to reduced overdraft and insufficient fund fees, which reflect the broader industry trend of customers choosing to forego authorizing payments of certain items which exceed their account balances, resulting in fewer overdrafts in checking accounts and related fees. We also saw a drop in debit card fee income. On the positive side, gains on loan sales were up by about $292,000 compared to last year's quarter, reflecting higher premiums on single family mortgage loans, which we've originated for sale. On non-interest expense, that total was $33.7 million, down $1.8 million compared to the prior year quarter. The decrease was mainly due to lower professional fees and gains from selling foreclosed assets. Legal audit and other professional fees decreased $1.0 million from the prior year quarter as costs related to the proposed core systems conversion are no longer being incurred. We realized $459,000 in gains from selling foreclosed assets during the quarter compared to just $22,000 in gains in the same quarter last year. We also did experience, though, on the other side, an increase in occupancy expense of about $409,000, primarily due to technology-related costs as we continue to invest in our digital infrastructure and online security. Our efficiency ratio improved during the quarter, coming in at 61.34%, down from 65.13% in Q3 2023. This improvement reflects our continued efforts to manage expenses while investing in key business areas. For the three months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, the company's effective tax rate was 18.0% and 21.5% respectively. These effective rates were near or below the statutory federal rate of 21%, primarily due to the utilization of certain investment tax credits and the company's tax exempt investments and tax exempt loans which reduced the company's effective tax rate. The company's current effective tax rate, both combined federal and state, is expected to be approximately 18.0 to 20.0% in future periods, primarily due to the additional investment tax credits being utilized beginning in 2024. To finally talk a little bit about capital again, we ended the quarter with stockholders' equity of $612.1 million, an increase of $40.3 million since the end of 2023. This brings our tangible common equity ratio to 10.0%, up from 9.7% at the end of 2023. We're also pleased to report a strong increase in our book value per share, which rose to over $52, up from about $49 in the previous quarter and $44.81 in the third quarter of last year. This increase in book value resulted from both increased retained earnings and improvement in unrealized losses on our available for sale investment portfolio and interest rates loss. This growth underscores our commitment to enhancing shareholder value through both earnings performance and disciplined capital management. Despite the challenges posed by the competitive deposit environment and higher funding costs, we have continued to deliver solid financial results. Our focus on managing credit risk, controlling costs, and maintaining strong capital levels has positioned us well as we navigate the remainder of this year. As we move forward, we remain committed to generating sustainable, long-term value for our shareholders through prudent financial management and strategic capital deployment. That concludes my remarks for today, and we're now ready to take any questions we may have.