Great Southern Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSBC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Joseph Turner: I mean, I think, loan growth will continue to be fairly modest, Damon, because, that I think that us taken a hard look at it, but I think it’s also our customers taken a hard look at it. We had a meeting yesterday and one of our senior lenders that he thought that our customers to a large extent had their pencils down right now. I mean that they’re struggling to make sense out of these rates and so they’re just going to wait for a little while. So I think in light of that loan growth is going to be pretty tepid.

Damon DelMonte: Got it. Okay. And then just lastly if I could squeeze one more in, I mean, you did buy back some shares this quarter and you’ve kind of been doing that consistently in previous quarters. Is it fair to kind of assume that given current pricing levels, you will continue to be opportunistic since you have some dry powder left on your current authorization?

Joseph Turner: I think so, yeah. I mean, I think we’ll continue to be strategic about it, but yeah, I think we are, we continue to be interested in that.

Damon DelMonte: Great. Okay. That’s all that I had. Thank you very much.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of John Rodis with Janney. Your line is open.

John Rodis: Hey, guys. Good afternoon.

Joseph Turner: Hey, John.

John Rodis: Hope you guys are doing well. Rex, just wanted to circle back to your comments on expenses were helpful. As far as the system’s conversion, is that — is that still slated to take place the middle of next year? So the $900,000 to $1 million in added expense, so keep going through roughly the second quarter next year?

Rex Copeland: Yes. That should continue on.

John Rodis: Okay. And as far as in the press release, you had some comments about some disagreements and stuff, is there — I mean are there financial damages that could be unwound there or something like that or I’m just trying to understand that text.

Rex Copeland: Yeah, John. I mean we don’t have a lot of color to provide beyond what was in the press release. We’re just, as we said, we’re — we have some contract disputes and we’re in the process of trying to work through those.

John Rodis: Okay. Rex, if we — you kind of went through some line items. And if I heard you correctly, I think you said sort of non-reoccurring expenses in the quarter were roughly $150,000. And then I think you said occupancy should stay at this higher level and then insurance, a little bit higher at this current level for the fourth quarter and then start to come back down. So if we — if we look at the third quarter expenses, if you back out that $150,000 to maybe $200,000, is that the right way to think of expenses at least for the fourth quarter?

Rex Copeland: I would say, like I said, the deposit insurance is going to stay elevated in Q4 by I think roughly around $180,000 and then that should come back down in Q1. The $150,000 in legal and professional fees that — that was some extra stuff, so that really should come down in Q4.

John Rodis: Okay. So, but other than that the other items are sort of as is and sort of a good run rate going forward, is that right?

Rex Copeland: Yeah. I don’t think there’s anything else that I noted in there that was sort of a one-off or unusual.

John Rodis: Okay. Just two more questions, just securities portfolio was down or maybe a little bit more than I would have expected. Should we expect some continued run-off going forward in the securities portfolio?