Guaranty Bank doubles 3Q profit

Guaranty Federal Bancshares Inc. (Nasdaq: GFED), the holding company for Guaranty Bank, recorded profits of $1.2 million in the third quarter, a 133 percent increase compared to $522,000 earned in the same quarter last year.

Earnings per diluted share were 35 cents for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from 9 cents per diluted share in third-quarter 2010, according to a company news release.

Guaranty officials said in the release they've focused on improving the bank's net interest income, which was $5.3 million during the quarter, up from $4.2 million in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

Third-quarter financial highlights:

• Provision for loan losses was $900,000, or 2.73 percent of gross loans outstanding.
• Noninterest income decreased 14.3 percent to $996,000 compared to the previous quarter. This was due to an $83,000 loss on foreclosed assets, a decline in gains on sales of loans by $102,000 and a $47,000 decline in service charge income.
• Noninterest expense, which the company says it has closely managed, was $3.88 million, up slightly from $3.83 million in third-quarter 2010.

As of Sept. 30, Guaranty's assets were $672.7 million, down from $682.7 million at the end of the same quarter in 2010. Deposits were $492.7 million during the quarter.

In the five-county Springfield metropolitan statistical area, Guaranty ranked as the No. 5 deposit market share leader. As of June 30, Guaranty held 6.53 percent of the market share with $486 million in deposits across nine branches in the MSA. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released the updated market share rankings Oct. 4.

Guaranty Federal Bancshares Inc. operates nine full-service branches in Greene and Christian counties and loan production offices in Taney, Wright, Webster and Howell counties.

As of 9:45 a.m., the company's shares were trading at $5.24, compared to a 52-week range of $3.84 to $7.14.[[In-content Ad]]