Great Southern qualifies for new Nasdaq exchange

On July 1, Nasdaq renamed its National Market the Nasdaq Global Market, which as of July 3 classified its companies under three listing tiers: Global Select Market, Global Market and Capital Market.

To qualify for the Global Select Market listing, companies must meet certain financial standards, such as aggregate pretax earnings of at least $11 million in the previous three fiscal years and earnings of at least $2.2 million in the two most recent fiscal years. Other financial factors include cash flow, market capitalization, revenue, bid price and corporate governance.

Companies also must meet liquidity regulations regarding a company’s number of beneficial shareholders, publicly held shares and the market value of publicly held shares.

Great Southern has about 2,400 beneficial shareholders, and as of March 8 had 13,713,047 outstanding shares, including about 3.4 million insider shares. Market value of its shares is $304.4 million.

Great Southern (Nasdaq: GSBC) previously was listed on the Nasdaq National Market.

“Great Southern is an example of an industry leader that has achieved superior listing standards, which clearly defines the essence of the Nasdaq Global Select Market,” said Bruce Aust, executive vice president of Nasdaq’s Corporate Client Group, in a Great Southern news release.

The new classification does not affect how the stock is traded.

Great Southern shares closed July 11 at $29.81.

This story originally appeared in SBJ’s July 10 free e-news Daily Update. Click here to register.