Great Southern bumps 1Q earnings 12%

Great Southern Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq: GSBC) bumped its first-quarter earnings by 12 percent, increasing profits to $8.4 million from $7.5 million a year ago.

The Springfield-based holding company for Great Southern Bank reported earnings per diluted share of 60 cents for the quarter that ended March 31, a 6-cent uptick from the same period in 2012, according to a news release.

Noting the company is entering its 90th year, Great Southern President and CEO Joe Turner pointed to loan growth during the first quarter.

"Excluding covered loans and mortgages held for sale, total loans increased $52 million from December 31, 2012," he said in the release. "We continue to see signs of improvement in loan demand in some of our markets, but competition remains significant.

"With our strong capital and liquidity levels, we are well-positioned to lend as economic conditions improve."

First-quarter financial notes:

• Great Southern's net interest income rose 14.6 percent to $42.1 million from $36.8 million in the same quarter of 2012.
• Salaries and employee benefits increased by $685,000 to $13.2 million, $212,000 of which was related to salaries of former InterBank employees, who joined the company after Great Southern's April 2012 Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-assisted acquisition of the Minnesota-based company.
• Provision for loan losses decreased 18.4 percent to $8.2 million from $10.1 million.

As of March 31, Great Southern's assets totaled $4 billion its deposits were $3.2 billion and liabilities equaled $3.7 billion. The company operates 107 branches in Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Nebraska.

GSBC shares were trading at $23.80 as of 11:51 a.m., compared to a 52-week range of $22 to $31.81.