Great Southern Bancorp (NASDAQ:GSBC) Reaches New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Shares of Great Southern Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSBC) hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday. The company traded as high as $84.36 and last traded at $83.2450, with a volume of 13,506 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $81.47.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on GSBC. Wall Street Zen lowered Great Southern Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, October 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Great Southern Bancorp from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Zacks Research raised Great Southern Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Great Southern Bancorp from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.00.

Great Southern Bancorp Trading Up 2.4%

The firm has a market capitalization of $909.44 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.55 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $79.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $72.29.

Great Southern Bancorp (NASDAQ:GSBC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. Great Southern Bancorp had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 19.85%. The firm had revenue of $57.74 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $56.08 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Great Southern Bancorp, Inc. will post 6.23 EPS for the current year.

Great Southern Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 28th were paid a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 28th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. Great Southern Bancorp’s payout ratio is 30.02%.

Insider Transactions at Great Southern Bancorp

In other Great Southern Bancorp news, Director Julie Brown sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.00, for a total value of $68,931.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,052 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $571,212. The trade was a 10.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 29.75% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Great Southern Bancorp in the 2nd quarter valued at $60,624,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new stake in Great Southern Bancorp in the second quarter worth $8,793,000. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in Great Southern Bancorp during the second quarter worth $4,237,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Great Southern Bancorp during the second quarter worth $3,412,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in Great Southern Bancorp during the second quarter worth $2,010,000. Institutional investors own 41.66% of the company’s stock.

Great Southern Bancorp Company Profile

Great Southern Bancorp, Inc is the bank holding company for Great Southern Bank, a full-service financial institution headquartered in Springfield, Missouri. The company provides banking and financial services to individuals, families, businesses and institutions through a network of banking centers and other delivery channels.

Great Southern Bank offers deposit products, residential and commercial real estate lending, construction and development financing, commercial business loans, consumer loans and mortgage services.