Great Southern Bancorp (NASDAQ:GSBC) Downgraded by Zacks Research to Hold

Great Southern Bancorp (NASDAQ:GSBC) was downgraded by stock analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on GSBC. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Great Southern Bancorp from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Great Southern Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Great Southern Bancorp from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.00.

Great Southern Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of GSBC opened at $73.63 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $801.83 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.67 and a beta of 0.50. Great Southern Bancorp has a 1-year low of $53.76 and a 1-year high of $76.92. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $69.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Great Southern Bancorp (NASDAQ:GSBC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.31. Great Southern Bancorp had a net margin of 21.33% and a return on equity of 11.29%. The business had revenue of $55.36 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $54.75 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Great Southern Bancorp will post 5.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Great Southern Bancorp

In other news, CEO Joseph W. Turner sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.16, for a total transaction of $408,960.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 136,182 shares in the company, valued at $9,282,165.12. This represents a 4.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Kevin L. Baker sold 2,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.96, for a total transaction of $195,888.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 14 shares in the company, valued at approximately $979.44. This trade represents a 99.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 13,687 shares of company stock valued at $938,407. 29.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GSBC. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Great Southern Bancorp by 9.8% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 271,310 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,618,000 after purchasing an additional 24,131 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of Great Southern Bancorp by 26.6% in the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 130,884 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,057,000 after purchasing an additional 27,487 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP grew its holdings in shares of Great Southern Bancorp by 177.7% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 48,227 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,954,000 after purchasing an additional 30,863 shares during the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Great Southern Bancorp by 20.5% in the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 47,906 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,949,000 after purchasing an additional 8,149 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in shares of Great Southern Bancorp by 6.2% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 47,670 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,009,000 after purchasing an additional 2,764 shares during the last quarter. 41.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Great Southern Bancorp

Great Southern Bancorp, Inc (NASDAQ: GSBC) is the bank holding company for Great Southern Bank, a full-service commercial bank headquartered in Springfield, Missouri. Through its subsidiary, the company provides a broad spectrum of financial products and services designed to meet the needs of individuals, small and mid-sized businesses, and professional clients across its regional footprint.

Great Southern Bank’s core business activities include deposit-taking, lending and treasury management.